Lohjinawi

Lohjinawi partners with local waste banks to collect recyclables and provide fair income to waste collectors, turning individual efforts into a more efficient recycling system.

Indonesia generates 6.8 million tons of plastic waste annually, of which only 10% is recycled. One obstacle hindering recycling is a lack of sorting at-source, from households. This is partly a result of limited community awareness of waste management issues, made worse by ineffective infrastructure, including overloaded landfills.

Lohjinawi operates as a community-based waste aggregator,  collecting recyclable material from waste banks that collectively process approximately 10 tons of recyclable materials each month. These materials are collected by over 5,000 community members, many of whom are women, who earn income through their contributions. Lohjinawi then processes the waste and gets it ready for recycling companies.

TRANSFORM’s support will enable Lohjinawi to expand the regions in its plastic waste value chain. By working with local community leaders, mostly women, and providing them with training on establishing and operating waste banks, as well as the value of different plastic materials, Lohjinawi will establish 250 new collection points to obtain raw material for the recycling industry. This will support the livelihoods of 1,600 additional waste workers in East Java.

In addition to expanding its collection network, TRANSFORM’s support will enable Lohjinawi to expand its warehouses, and add new waste processing systems such was washing, grinding, drying and producing flakes. This will allow it to scale up to processing 50 tons of plastic waste for recycling per month.