Make A Change

Indonesia-headquartered Make A Change is an organisation focused on increasing awareness around environmental change and tackling it through innovative projects like ocean cleanups and expeditions. 

In 2018, nearly 33,000 tons of plastic from the Bali rivers made its way into the ocean. It is estimated that up to 80% of ocean plastic waste starts from land, making waste management the most efficient way to reduce it. Through the power of awareness, inclusion and innovation, Make A Change aims to contribute to cleaning up coastlines and preventing further pollution. 

The organisation has run a number of notable projects like Sungai Watch, involving clean-ups along the Bali coastline, and setting up 100 trash barriers to prevent plastic flowing into the sea. The project uses an online platform for GIS monitoring and AI to observe the rivers up to an area of 10 cm. The platform is aimed at allowing viewers to witness the cleaning up of the river in real-time. 

The organisation is also teaming up with German startup Plastic Fischer to test the effectiveness of trash booms in polluted rivers. Trash booms are a cost-effective waste collection method involving a wire mesh made from stainless steel and galvanized wire suspended from PVC pipes. The collected waste is transported to a mobile sorting station where it is washed, weighed and sent for recycling. 

Make A Change has also run other projects like Ocean 2 Ocean, Plastic Bottle Citarium, Bro Clean Brooklyn, Keliling Bali and Recycled Mississipi. 

Make A Change believes in planning innovations and expeditions that are affordable and localized to effectively scale them up. They have worked with a number of organisations like "We Are Family Foundation" and "water.org". The organisation welcomes partnerships, participation and donations.