Get to know the passionate innovators and activists in the region who are leading the fight to clean up their countries’ waterways and reduce plastic waste.
 |
|---|
| China is one of the biggest producers and consumers of plastic. The plastic pollution challenge there is immense, and Liu Yonglong founded one of the country’s first non-profits focused on curbing marine debris. Read more |
 |
|---|
| After seeing the amount of plastic waste in his country, Min Kyaw Zin came up with a thoroughly local and sustainable solution to plastic packaging in Myanmar. Read more |
 |
|---|
| BambooLao is generating income for poor villagers, including people with disabilities who had no income. This is both improving lives and the health of the Mekong River. Read more |
 |
|---|
| Every 20 minutes, the equivalent of a 10-ton truckload of plastic waste is dumped into the waters around Indonesia. Sano’s innovative waste management company is chipping away at the problem. Read more |
 |
|---|
| After diving in the waters of her home island of Atauro, Timor-Leste’s first female PADI Divemaster saw first-hand the impact of marine debris. Along with other volunteers, she’s helping to clean up their shores and raise awareness in her community. Read more |
 |
|---|
| Raitiata Cati is a Project Officer with the Environment & Conservation Division of the Government of Kiribati working on a new ‘seeds for plastic’ swap scheme that aims to reduce plastic waste. Read more |
 |
|---|
| Miriama Uluiviti Taukiei is working towards an innovative plastic waste tax and a complete single-use plastic ban with the Department of Waste Management in Tuvalu. Read more |
 |
|---|
| In Vietnam, one of the top 5 largest producers of marine debris globally, Trang is combining science with activism to help change behavior in society and clean up her country’s waterways. Read more |
 |
|---|
| Living in the third-biggest contributor to ocean plastic pollution prompted Julian Rodriguez to start an NGO in the Philippines to fight marine plastics. Read more |
 |
|---|
| Singapore uses 467 million PET bottles a year. Prof. Duong and team found a way to convert these into PET aerogels, which degrade 20 times faster. Read more |
 |
|---|
| Focusing her PhD research and now her work on marine plants in Micronesia, Nicole worries about the devastating impacts of #marineplastics to the food chain and is committed to fighting plastic pollution. Read more |
 |
|---|
| Angelica runs MANA Care Products, which is the first organization in the Pacific to make affordable, sustainable and reusable cotton sanitary pads for women. Read more |
 |
|---|
| In Tonga, Mone Lapao’o is leading work to reduce #plasticwaste through education, policy advice and reform, and all-hands-on-deck efforts to clean up trash. Read more |
 |
|---|
| In Malaysia, Yasmin's 'army of change' is raising awareness and getting their hands dirty to clean up #plasticwaste and minimize plastic use altogether. Read more |
 |
|---|
| Rendy is the Founder of PlasticWise Gizo, an initiative to educate communities on waste management that also turns #plasticwaste into colorful handicrafts in Solomon Islands. Read more |
 |
|---|
| Donna Kalfatak works on Vanuatu’s bold plastic ban and is helping to roll out new, even more ambitious regulations to beat plastic pollution. Read more |
