Stories Bank Sampah: How communities are beating plastic pollution one kilo at a time

“You collect trash?” she asked. “No,” Siti smiled. “I collect change.”

That was the moment it clicked for Siti Rohani, the heart behind Bank Sampah Kijang in Kampar, Riau. The woman she was speaking to didn’t yet understand plastic pollution, or waste segregation, or the ripple effect of a single recycled bottle. But Siti did. Because she’s lived it.

Plastic pollution isn’t just a problem of floating debris in faraway oceans. It’s something that affects what families eat, how children play, and what kind of future a village can hope for.

But what if we could flip the script? What if plastic waste wasn’t just a nuisance – but a lifeline?

Bank Sampah: Where waste becomes worth

This World Environment Day, we’re spotlighting the unsung heroes behind one of our most powerful grassroots initiatives: Bank Sampah, or Waste Bank.

> 9,000 kilograms of waste diverted from landfill

350+ families engaged and trained

Started in 2022 with two pilot locations in Riau, Bank Sampah was built on a simple yet radical idea – that waste is not worthless. That belief has empowered over 350 families, diverted more than 9,000 kilograms of plastic, paper, and metal from landfill, and ignited a shift in how communities think about everyday waste.

It’s about cleaning up, yes. But more than that, it’s about building up – incomes, confidence, and resilience.

Take Kijang Estate in Riau for instance. When the programme first began there, not everyone believed it would work. Bringing your waste like bank deposits? It felt unfamiliar. But slowly, people began to understand that it wasn’t just about recycling. It was about reclaiming agency over their environment, their health, and their future.

“We don’t just take trash, we teach value,” says Siti.

Like many other Bank Sampah administrators, Siti runs workshops, teaches families which waste has economic potential, and motivates them to keep going – even when the sorting is tedious, or the sacks are light.

“Sometimes, people come with only half a kilo,” she says. “They haven’t sorted it properly. We still accept it. Because at least they’re trying. And that’s how change begins.”

Why it matters — now more than ever

Globally, just 9% of plastic waste has ever been recycled. The rest? It clogs rivers, pollutes fields, and seeps into food chains. This year’s World Environment Day theme, #BeatPlasticPollution, reminds us how urgent the problem is.

That’s why Bank Sampah is part of something bigger – our Collective for Impact sustainability framework and a direct contribution to UN Sustainable Development Goal 12.5.1, which focuses on raising national recycling rates and promoting a circular economy.

By encouraging people to sort waste at home, recover recyclable materials, and see waste as a resource, the programme helps us move closer to our circularity and waste reduction targets:

Reduce plastic waste in landfills by 20% across 27 upstream units by 2030

Reduce plastic sent to landfills by 50% in Upstream operations by 2040

Reduce post-consumer packaging waste from Downstream sent to landfills by 30% by 2030

Reduce post-consumer packaging waste from Downstream operations sent to landfills by 50% by 2040

But goals and frameworks are only half the story. The real engines of change are people like Siti who show up every day and keep their communities moving forward to make it happen.

From grassroots to greener futures

In the housing quarters across our estates in Riau, plastic bottles are no longer just trash. They’re school fees, cooking oil, savings. They’re evidence that the small, consistent actions can shape a cleaner, more hopeful future.

And we’re not stopping here.

We’re now working to double community participation across Riau in the next two years. That means scaling up training, strengthening local collection networks, and making it easier for families to sort, deposit, and recycle waste where they live.

As Serafina Tri Suprapti Rahayu, our Head of Circular Economy, puts it:

“Bank Sampah empowers communities with the idea that change doesn’t have to start big. It just has to start with what you throw away today, and what you choose to do with it tomorrow.”

Reducing waste is just one part of our commitment to responsible production. Find out how we’re working to lower our footprint across all operations here.