On September 23rd, the Alliance to End Plastic Waste announced a partnership with Project STOP Jembrana to support development and launch of a waste management recycling system in the regency of Jembrana, located on the northwest coast of Bali. Over the next three years, the Alliance and Project STOP will collaborate on financial support, technical expertise and a feasibility study to assess how to extend the approach launched in Jembrana to achieve zero ocean-plastics leakage.

Project STOP Jembrana is an initiative co-founded by Borealis and SYSTEMIQ to design, implement and scale circular economy solutions that prevent marine plastic pollution in Southeast Asia. Project STOP Jembrana supports cities with technical expertise to achieve zero leakage of waste into the environment, improve circular systems, create new jobs in waste management and reduce the harmful impact of mismanaged waste on public health, tourism and fisheries.

This is the first Alliance-funded city partnership for Project STOP Jembrana on the island of Bali and is designed to be economically self-sufficient within three years, so that the system can be operated by the local government and communities, both of which will be closely consulted and involved throughout the project. During this three-year period, the partnership’s activities will include:

1. Conducting diagnostic studies to understand how and why plastic waste enters the environment and design a new, tailored system to combat it.
2. Building and supplying equipment to scale up waste collection and sorting efforts.
3. Hiring local workers at living wages and responsible working conditions to manage and staff the new waste management system.
4. Partnering with local organizations to encourage behavior change at the community level through awareness and educational programs, so more people fully utilize the systems being created to dispose of waste.
5. Cleaning up beaches and rivers in consultation with the local government.

The Jembrana regency was selected because of its system of rivers, where plastic litter flows into the sensitive ocean ecosystems around Bali. An estimated 33,000 tons of plastic waste leak into the ocean annually from Bali—equivalent to more than 2,600 double-decker buses.

By 2022, the Alliance and Project STOP Jembrana will help improve waste collection in Jembrana, bring waste collection for the first time to many households, create new permanent local jobs in waste management and clean up existing waste. In addition, Jembrana will also serve as a lab for innovative solutions that could be scaled up Indonesia-wide in the coming years.