Sungai Watch

Every Friday, we witness the true value of community come together. Our impact wouldn’t be the same without the incredible volunteers who show up every week, take action, and join us in our fight for cleaner rivers. From jumping into dirty rivers, to joining our mangroves and coastline cleanups, we are so grateful for this community. 📸 Swipe to see our amazing volunteers making an impact!

Every supermarket product is wrapped in plastic—giving us no choice but to buy single-use packaged goods. And when that plastic is discarded, it doesn’t just disappear. It floods our rivers, buries our beaches, and overwhelms communities with no waste management options. So, who should be held accountable? Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) puts the accountability where it belongs—on corporations. If they can mass-produce plastic, they must find real solutions to manage it. No more shifting the blame. No more empty promises. It’s time for real action. What do you think? Should corporations be responsible for the waste they create? Let us know in the comments! ⬇️

Thanks to the ongoing support of Solgaard Design Inc., one of our region sponsors in Banyuwangi, East Java, we have removed 323,453 kg of trash from this operation alone! Through this partnership, we are able to clean 27 barriers daily with the support of 18 full-time river warriors. This is what real impact looks like when we come together to protect our waterways. The fight against plastic pollution in Banyuwangi is far from over, and we’re committed to reaching even bigger milestones.

The war on plastic is on. Meet Pak Hary and our Banyuwangi, East Java team, who are members of Persaudaraan Setia Hati Terate (PSHT), a martial arts group now on a mission to clean rivers. Pak Hary, our Banyuwangi Area Manager believes that the values acquired from martial arts like discipline, patience, and respect are the perfect skills for cleaning rivers. Watch how these values fuel his mission to keep our rivers clean 🌊💪 Watch the full video now on our YouTube channel or click the link below 🔗 https://lnkd.in/ge833Jk7

The beginning of a movement to protect Indonesia’s rivers. What started as a mission to clean Bali’s rivers has now grown into 10 cleanup operations: 5 in Bali and 4 in East Java, all working to stop plastic before it reaches the ocean. In just four years, we’ve scaled from a single cleanup to a movement removing thousands of kilos of plastic every day. But this is just the beginning. Every new operation we open is an opportunity to further our impact and make a bigger step toward plastic-free waterways. See where we’re making the impact and check out our Impact Report 2024 for more details. Where should we go next? Drop your thoughts in the comments!

Cleaning up plastic pollution is just one part of the solution. Education is the real game-changer. We launched our new cleanup operation in Sidoarjo, and we are already collecting a lot more trash than we anticipated. We are therefore expanding our education efforts, especially with the younger generation. Teaching students about waste management is key to stopping pollution at the source. Our collaboration with the school, SMP Negeri 2 Sedati, is just the beginning. We are committed to reaching more schools, sparking awareness and inspiring the next generation of environmental leaders. The fight against plastic pollution starts with education and we are here to make sure it spreads. 

We’re so proud of the incredible women who are driving change for clean rivers. From jumping into dirty rivers every day to sorting millions of kg of waste, we couldn’t do it without them. Real change doesn’t just come from cleaning rivers — it comes from the people behind the work. Happy International Women’s day.

🚨Sungai Watch is expanding! After 4 years of cleaning Bali’s rivers, then Banyuwangi’s rivers, we are finally expanding to Sidoarjo, a densely populated region on the outskirts of Surabaya, Indonesia’s second most populated city. We launched our Sidoarjo operation in mid-December, 2024, through a series of cleanups and removed 23,082 kilograms of waste from some of Sidoarjo’s dirtiest rivers. Today, we are excited to announce the official launch of our first sorting facility in Sidoarjo. As a part of this operation, we will be installing 23 trash barriers that we will be cleaning regularly for the next few years to solve the plastic pollution crisis in the region. And the first few barriers are already over-performing our expectations, showing the importance of this work! When we scale to new regions with Sungai Watch, it’s not just about cleaning rivers – it’s also about processing waste the right way and educating local communities about sorting methods at the household level and working with governments to build better waste management infrastructure. This is an exciting next step for us – the start of our expansion across Indonesia! A big thank you to The James & Sharon Maida Foundation for partnering with us on this important expansion, and to The AlGar Foundation, Karin Betts, Mowelli, Ozone #FlyOzone, Positive Prints - Amazing Custom Gifts, Right To Run | On, The Spring Dell Foundation, and The Wanderlust Fund for sponsoring barriers in Sidoarjo.

Plastic Bag Ban? What Ban? 🤔 Bali’s Government has banned single-use plastic bags since July, 2019. So why are bags still the number 1 type of plastic we collect in Bali’s rivers? They clog our gutters, pollute our rivers, and break down into tiny microplastics in the ocean. A ban is meant to reduce pollution and educate people on the impact of unnecessary plastics. The plastic bag ban, which was enforced through Regulation of the Governor of Bali Province (Number 97 of 2018), concerning restrictions on the mass production of single-use plastic, is still unclear today. A policy without action is just words. If the Government of Bali will not enforce its own ban, then how will we truly see a reduction in plastic bags in Bali? We need real enforcement. We need businesses to step up and stop buying and giving out plastic bags. We need a Bali that actually follows through on its commitments. Leave a comment below with what you think Bali should do, and let’s hold Bali’s government and its businesses accountable 💪🌎

Another day, and a few cleaner rivers later — Thanks to Green-Got, a French financial institution, we are cleaning 16 river points daily, stopping plastic from going into the ocean, in Banyuwangi, East Java. With their help in 10 months, we’ve collected 117,079 kg of waste from rivers. This is a huge milestone and an exciting partnership we are excited to build on and continue to grow. Thank you Green-Got for supporting our efforts to protect Indonesia’s rivers and our world’s ocean.