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CircularJourney

Indonesia / Surabaya

Bank Sampah: community waste banks in Indonesia

Neighbourhood-level collection points where households deposit sorted recyclables and are credited for them, often through a savings account. Widely replicated internationally, with highly variable survival rates.
Plannedplasticpackagingmunicipal solid waste

This entry is scoped, not researched. What follows is the structure of the study and what is already known from public sources. The findings, impact and assessment sections stay empty until the field visit has happened. It will not be marked published until the limitations and what-did-not-work sections are complete.

Overview

Neighbourhood-level collection points where households deposit sorted recyclables and are credited for them, often through a savings account. Widely replicated internationally, with highly variable survival rates.

Country
Indonesia
City
Surabaya
Waste streams
plastic, packaging, municipal solid waste
SDGs
SDG 11, SDG 12

Problem

Municipal collection does not reach every neighbourhood, and where it does, mixed waste destroys the value of recoverable material before it can be sold.

Solution

Not yet researched

To be documented during the field visit.

How it works

  1. 01Households sort recyclables and bring them to a local collection point.
  2. 02Material is weighed and the household is credited, often as savings rather than cash.
  3. 03Aggregated material is sold on to larger buyers or processors.

Stakeholders

  • Participating households
  • Waste bank operators, frequently volunteers
  • Local government
  • Aggregators and processors who buy the output

Technology

Not yet researched

To be documented during the field visit.

Economics

Not yet researched

To be documented during the field visit.

Policy

Not yet researched

To be documented during the field visit.

Citizen participation

Not yet researched

To be documented during the field visit.

Environmental impact

Not yet researched

Impact figures are only published where they have been measured and sourced. Nothing is estimated to fill the gap.

Social impact

Not yet researched

Impact figures are only published where they have been measured and sourced. Nothing is estimated to fill the gap.

Limitations

Required before publication

Every system has limits. This section must be filled in before this entry can move to published, which is why it is a compulsory field rather than an optional one.

What did not work

Required before publication

The failed attempts are usually more instructive than the successful ones, and they are the first thing left out of most published case studies. They are not optional here.

India applicability

Not yet researched

No transfer assessment can be made before the system has been seen working and its dependencies understood. Anything published here will be labelled a proposal until a pilot reports.

Circular Journey assessment

Not yet researched

Our own reading of the evidence, written after the field visit and labelled as analysis rather than fact.

Sources

Not yet researched

Sources are added as the research produces them. The full register is at /sources.

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