Our mission is to protect the Coral Triangle, testing root cause solutions on Bangka Island with the ambition of creating replicable models that can be rolled out across the region.
Our work is informed by science and enabled by collaboration across multiple partners, countries and institutions. Each of our four pillars tackles a different area but all four are required to fully address the ever increasing problem of ocean pollution.
We employ a team of local people to run our sorting station on Bangka Island, collecting and preparing waste to send to the mainland for further treatment. Keeping Bangka's coastline clean is a never-ending task and we work with the local community, tourists and volunteers to carry out regular beach clean ups. Local resorts have signed up to our regular waste collection service, providing them with a sustainable waste management solution whilst contributing to our circular economic model.
In 2023, our resort programme expanded to Gangga, Siladen and Bunaken islands and we opened our Ocean Plastic Sorting Station in Manado. Here, we sort resort waste and rubbish collected from Manado's river barriers. This river barrier activity will expand in 2024, as we install new barriers on some of Manado's main waterways. Behaviour change and reliable waste collection services are fundamental to tackling plastic pollution but preventing river waste entering Bunaken National Marine Park is also vitally important to protect this delicate marine ecosystem.
We work to spread awareness about the threat plastic pollution poses as well as the value of the Coral Triangle as a site of marine biodiversity. Whether it’s at conferences, presentations to tourists, other business owners or locals, we strive to spread the word and inspire positive action.
In 2019, we launched our pioneering environmental education program with Indonesian NGO, Seasoldier. We taught local junior high school students about corals, mangroves, seagrass and the threat plastic poses to their beautiful island home. These students graduated as Ocean Ambassadors, caretakers of their island's future.
Located at the heart of the Coral Triangle, Coral Eye acts as our base, where we can bring together tourists, locals, scientists, divers, volunteers and friends. It offers a common space to educate, research, realise ideas and translate data into action.
We help researchers and scientists who are trying to answer the question of why there is so much plastic in the Coral Triangle, designing sustainable solutions for a world without plastic.
Through scholarships and relationships with a number of universities, we support students who are investigating the source, pathways and destination of plastic in the marine environment. We have provided scholarships to students from all over the world and the results of their projects will help shape our understanding of this vast problem.
We have worked with resorts across Bangka to initiate waste management programs. We hope the models we have designed can be implemented on multiple islands in the region. Big businesses so often hold the keys to enable change so we hope that by spreading awareness and facilitating CSR activities, we can help bring about a shift in how organisations view their waste. We speak at conferences and events to help spread the word and increase our reach.
