Gede Susila, the elected head of Les Village , said the township was happy to host this program.
”It will lessen the detrimental impact of plastic waste on our health, help keep plastic out of our environment and make our village cleaner, provide employment to our people, and once the program generates income, provide income to our village government through BUMDes. It will be our honour if we become a model for other coastal villages in Indonesia to emulate on proper management of plastic waste.”
“The Shruder machines turn plastic waste into raw materials that can be sold or made into valuable products. To foster a circular economy, we deliver training, tools and equipment to transform waste plastic into valuable resources, providing income for communities,”said Louise Hardman, Plastic Collective CEO and Founder.
Community buy-in is needed for success, according to Sea Communities, to change village practices towards plastic waste.
Elaine Kwee, project leader of Sea Communities’ reef rehabilitation program, explained “The plastic in the sea was suffocating our coral plantings. We had to tackle marine debris holistically with a land-side campaign to change people’s practices in plastic use and waste disposal."
Research to monitor impacts on debris in the environment and test whether this win-win-win theory works in practice is led by Professor Stephen Smith, Director of Southern Cross University’s National Marine Science Centre.
“Scientific research will enable us to empirically assess if small-scale infrastructure and community-led collection and sorting can provide solutions to the waste management challenge faced by many developing countries”.
To help Professor Smith, Earthwatch organises citizen scientist expeditions to monitor environmental debris levels in parallel with the implementation of the project.