No-Trash Triangle Initiative

Inspiring and engaging students and educators is an important part of our mission to reduce plastic waste. Last week Jasmin S Mueller and Dr. Christoph Tholen led a workshop on the topic of Marine Waste in Indonesia as part of a Sustainability Forum at The Berlin School of Economics and Law. The Institut für Nachhaltigkeit der HWR Berlin (INa) initiated and organized the event. The workshop highlighted the importance of local initiatives such as No-Trash Triangle Initiative’s in tackling the marine litter problem. Continued research into methodologies and technologies to manage our plastic waste problem is vital if we want to get on top of the problem. We’re delighted to be part of the conversation and will continue to support academic efforts in this space through our scholarship program. https://lnkd.in/e2a67ajw

Waste pickers or "Pemulung" play an important role in Indonesia's waste management system. Despite this, they often work in dangerous conditions with little in the way of security. We believe that waste management can be done differently. Our circular economic model has scaled to the point now where we've been able to hire two former Pemulung to work for us. Read more about the waste pickers and Ibu Leila's story in our most recent blog post. https://lnkd.in/eVcsPgnB

Today I would like to share another milestone of our NTTI activities: School on the Beach successfully completed once again! It fits the theme 'sharing is caring' and we owe it to the great efforts of the local teachers and sponsors 🙏 Read the 3 touching testimonals from the young participants in our School on the Beach programme and write us your feedback.

Another year of our School on the Beach education programme has come to close with students receiving their certificates this week. This year, we expanded our programme to a second school on Bangka Island with support from Raiffeisen Capital Management, spreading the message about how important it is to look after our environment even further. Teaching the next generation about their role in looking after our planet is critical if we want to secure the future of our ocean ecosystem. https://lnkd.in/e5y5tkS9

We've installed our first river barrier as part of our No-Trash River project! This is the culmination of months of hard work getting this project off the ground. We intend to install 20 barriers in total, across the city of Manado, preventing c. 250 TONNES of waste entering the Bunaken National Marine Park every year! We're not only looking at physical solutions though. We're also engaging local communities and schools to educate and inspire the community to look after their waterways whilst also providing proper waste management infrastructure. *This project is funded by financial means of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and supported by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH. https://lnkd.in/eJre6Buf

No-Trash River, our latest project to protect the Coral Triangle from plastic pollution is coming to life! Late last year, we were awarded funding by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH to prevent the tonnes of rubbish that flow through Manado’s rivers each year from entering the ocean. As part of our holistic approach, we're installing innovative river barriers at two sites to begin with. Read about the approach we're taking in our latest blog post. https://lnkd.in/eA7t_bTg *This project is funded by financial means of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and supported by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH.

We've been awarded some innovation funding by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, the German Society for International Cooperation. The grant is provided through GIZ’s 3RProMar programme and will support our efforts to install new river barriers on some of Manado’s major waterways as well as allowing us to invest in a vehicle to support our collection efforts. We're really excited to get things moving and further increase the positive impact we're having in protecting the Coral Triangle. *This project is funded by financial means of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and supported by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH. https://lnkd.in/eijAcUNq

The ambassador of Germany to Indonesia, Ina Lepel, visited our plastic waste sorting station in Manado. I am very humbled by the news she shared: The German development agency Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH will issue two grants to co-finance the scale-up of our projects in Indonesia: 1) The first grant will allow Amelia Tungka and Anna Clerici to set up separate waste collection at schools. This project will reach over 10.000 children in Manado. On Bangka Island we have learned how much education on waste separation in schools helps to promote these practices in households, too. Now, we transfer this learning to the regional capital.   2) The second grant finances our installation of plastic waste barriers across the rivers of Manado. The GIZ estimates that (in Manado alone) over 1.200 tons of plastic waste enter the waterways every year. Until we have waste bins in place for the households, these barriers will strongly reduce plastic waste from entering the marine nationalparks around Manado. Our learning curve for river barriers is steep - thanks to guidance by Plastic Fischer GmbH. While GIZ co-finances investment costs, the question remained: how to cover operational costs of waste collection? Frankly, i underestimated the role of plastic credits, first. Meanwhile, my learning is: Whenever there is no Extended Producer Responsibility System in place, transparent plastic credits can really help cover the costs of plastic waste collection. We are grateful to collaborate with Oceanworks® for co-financing the collection of all plastic waste from the schools and the river barries.   It is a new and exciting endeavour for us to set up this ecosystem of partners for plastic waste collection; our legal advisor SZA Schilling, Zutt & Anschütz has given us amazing guidance for developing the agreements that we turn into reality in North Sulawesi, now. Want to learn more about our project? Check out our annual report: https://lnkd.in/g76U9Nvb   NO-TRASH TRIANGLE INITIATIVE, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH #probono, #GoCreate  Anna Clerici, Amelia Tungka, Christian Lott, Gráinne Regan, Miriam Weber, Marc-Philippe Hornung, Micha Brechtel, Nils Mohmeyer, William McDonough

Today I would like to share the achievements of No-Trash Triangle Initiative #NTTI. It's a great example of how collaboration and reliable partnerships are making progress in preventing waste leakage into the environment. Take a look at the annual summary here, enjoy the pictures that say 1000 words and take them as inspiration for your goals in 2024: https://lnkd.in/ehgdZG3C