Innovation

"Becoming the first platform that supports zero waste lifestyle," said Maurilla Imron, the founder of ZeroWaste.id. They sell the non-plastic products and also facilitate people to deepen their knowledge about zero waste through their blog. The products come from Indonesian suppliers who have the same vision as ZeroWaste which reduces plastic use. On the contrary, the blog conveys the importance about living in this kind of lifestyle and gives out tips and tricks in how to live in a less-waste lifestyle. The purpose of the blogs in the platform is to educate people who stumbled into the platform about how to live less waste not a whole zero waste lifestyle in order to and also encourages people to purchase eco-friendly products because for Indonesian people to apply a whole zero waste lifestyle is too extreme, and with a little of personal touch, the platform corresponds with the people’s need. In summary, the company wants to give Indonesian people the baby steps to accomplish a zero waste lifestyle.

The idea came from Laura Singer and Bea Johnson, American people who apply zero waste lifestyle and produce little waste in their daily life. However, the founder of ZeroWaste.id herself wants to introduce that there is an alternative lifestyle that Indonesian people could apply but not too extreme considering that Indonesian people are pretty consumptive.

Along with the co-founder who has a background in Marine Science, both of them are concerned of Indonesia's current situation in which there is much waste dumped directly to the sea or landfills and it is not decreasing per year; instead, it is increasing at a very concerning rate. Because they have similar concerns regarding the waste which starts to pile up in Indonesia, they created this innovation. Aside from the co-founder, the founder herself was also aided by her husband who is the web developer.

To conclude, ZeroWaste.id provides an alternative lifestyle which is living in less waste. They are educating people how to live with less waste and execute the recycling process as well as supporting SDG number 12 which is Responsible Consumption and Production.

Inspiration

Indonesia becomes the second largest country that produces plastic waste, resulting in a bunch of floating plastics in the sea or rivers; in addition, the sea creatures are also suffering because of the water pollution. Thus, they came up with the idea of ZeroWaste.id to educate the people through their blogs and also to sell the products that do not use any plastic or recycled materials.

Overall impact

People are more aware of the waste problems that is happening in Indonesia, and with that awareness, they become more concerned. With that concern, they tend to browse around in Google where they can contribute themselves to reduce waste. People could be directed to ZeroWaste.id, where they provide eco-friendly products. Moreover, they have additional feature such as blogs about zero waste lifestyle in the platform, so they can get knowledge about the lifestyle which they could apply in their daily basis. Therefore, the platform generates a more thorough process in aiding people to live more environmental-friendly. After getting the knowledge and having the products in consumers' hands, they could slowly apply the zero waste lifestyle in their daily basis. The more people who are applying the zero waste lifestyle could give an impact to the people who are forced living in the dumpster because their living spaces are taken by the dumpsters which become bigger and bigger each year.

Business benefit

ZeroWaste.id has survived for two years because people are more aware of zero waste as they searched more and more about it in the Google. The founder said that there is a continuous experience that the customers' are having in the platform which shown in the data that she had. First, people browse around in the platform specifically in the blogs section. After reading the blog about zero waste lifestyle, people are getting interested in zero waste, and they go to the shop to purchase the products. After purchasing the products, they return to the blogs section to learn about how to reduce the waste, and the platform itself has a section which is called ‘Bank Sampah,' where people collect sorted waste. The results of this waste will be deposited to the garbage collectors or craft makers. Governments, organizations and even individuals manage Bank Sampah by using a system like in the bank. The depositors are residents who live around the bank's location and gets a passbook like saving at a bank.

Social and environmental benefit

With people purchasing the recycled products and possessing the knowledge from ZeroWaste.id, the environment can be more waste-less and people become more aware of the concept of zero waste lifestyle which may also affect the environment around them. Initiatively, even when the people produce waste, they will hand over their waste to Bank Sampah to be recycled.

Interview

Maurilla Imron, Founder, CEO