The Alliance to End Plastic Waste (AEPW) makes high-profile claims about the projects around the world it supports in the pursuit of clearing up plastic waste leaching into the environment.
It works with partner organisations in developing countries to support community initiatives to collect and recycle plastic waste.
But a visit to one of the earliest projects in Bali reveals it has collected a fraction of the plastic waste it set out to handle.
Based in Jembrana, west Bali, the scheme set out to develop a “life-changing” waste system catering for 160,000 people. It was designed and implemented by the alliance in partnership with Project STOP, which aims to support waste management projects in south-east Asia.
Jembrana’s scheme includes a household waste collection service, an educational campaign and sorting buckets for residents, and a new recycling facility, where waste is processed and composted.
The facility was built next to an existing landfill. When the Alliance handed Project STOP Jembrana over to the local government and community last year, it said that it had “reached financial sustainability”. But it reported collecting less than a quarter of the 2,200 tonnes of plastic it originally intended to prevent from entering the oceans each year.
But when a reporter from Greenpeace’s Unearthed team went to visit it earlier this month, it was swamped with garbage from an adjacent landfill and struggling with broken machinery and poor finances.
The local organisation that took over the site with the local government has fallen into debt, and the mountain of waste at the surrounding landfill is bigger than when Project STOP began.
The project recently announced plans for waste to be burned in cement kilns – a practice that has raised concerns over the impact of air pollution on local communities, and which campaigners say disincentivises recycling.
Unearthed was told by workers that only 35 of the original 53 waste collection vehicles were still operational, and many of those frequently broke down.
“There has been no fleet to pick up trash from my house for a long time. So I still use a bucket to collect trash, but I burn the trash behind my house,” resident Ni Luh Sumitri told Unearthed.
Crucial waste sorting and recycling equipment is also broken, contributing to the growing waste pile adjoining the site. This waste pile has reportedly caused frequent fires, pollution and foul odours.
A landfill worker, who spoke to Unearthed on condition of anonymity, said smoke from fires at the landfill often entered residents’ homes at night.
A spokesperson for the AEPW said: “We fund a portfolio of projects of different sizes and nature with the objective of helping to solve the plastic waste challenge as well as develop learnings for future activities.
“As with any portfolio, we recognise projects may not work perfectly or achieve the same level of success. If these projects were easy, we wouldn’t be fulfilling our purpose of developing new solutions. Accordingly, we not only measure our progress by volume, but also through the funding of projects and the advancement of what we hope are scalable solutions that may have the potential to scale.”
The head of Jembrana’s environmental agency, Dewa Gede Ary Candra Wisnawa, told Unearthed that his party was still trying to improve management, but added: “We in the regions [are facing] budget constraints … there are many things that need to be fixed or adjusted. That is normal in adjusting the system.”
“More and more residents are collecting and sorting waste before being transported to [the recycling facility], but the problems at the [facility] are now an obstacle,” I Ketut Suardika, the head of the Jagra Palemahan community organisation, told Unearthed.
