Bidyanondo launched the Plastic Exchange Store, where plastic was used as currency to buy everyday essentials. For the first time ever, the natives proactively collected plastic waste and shopped using it. This provided them a unique experience while also introducing a recycling system into the island.

The campaign was launched via activations. The natives were made aware of the project through posters and announcements all around the island.

Situation:

St. Martin, a remote coral island in Bangladesh, faces 3 times the plastic pollution compared to the mainland. Due to its remote location, there is no garbage management systems and recycling systems. In turn, plastic keeps piling up on the island, harming fishing, tourism and wild marine life.

The local residents of the island think it is their responsibility to clean the area around their houses, but it is the government’s responsibility to keep the roads, beaches or public places clean.

Brief:

Therefore, the brief was to create a sustainable system to reduce the plastic waste from the island on a regular basis.

Objectives:

The objective was to find a way to get the natives involved in the clean-up process in a sustainable manner.

Plastic Exchange Store, an initiative that turned plastic into currency to buy everyday essentials. The idea was to motivate the natives to volunteer in the recycling act by monetizing plastic waste. The more plastic the natives collected, the more they could shop. Since plastic became valuable, the self-motivated natives began to collect plastic for future shopping.

The solution to cleaning up the island required for us to motivate the natives to proactively rid the island of plastic. The mindset of the demography was such that they believed cleaning their houses was their duty but cleaning public places was the duty of the local government. The campaign changed their behavioural pattern by turning plastic waste into currency for shopping. A sustainable recycle management system has been created through the project.

The natives collect plastic to shop at the Plastic Exchange Store. Bidyanondo then transports this exchanged plastic to the mainland, sells it to plastic recycle factories and uses the fund to buy more goods for the store. In turn, creating a truly sustainable model. Plastic Exchange Store connected off site recycling systems to the island, the recycling behavior of the natives was shifted positively while the confusion of whose job it was to clean up the island vanished completely.

The awareness phase of the campaign was held through activations for a month before launching the store.

Through Plastic Exchange Store, an offshore recycling system was created. This motivated natives to proactively clean up the island. They collected plastic and shop using it. Behavioral pattern of littering all around the island was changed.

The behavior of the natives to only clean their households was changed to them collecting plastic from all over the island.

One Plastic Exchange Store.

9M+ plastic items were recycled.

46% of St. Martin's population shopped using plastic waste collected from all around the island.

Organic PR value of 1.54M USD was generated.

St. Martin's economy depends on fishing and tourism due to the island's remoteness. Most of the residents of the island faces financial constraints, and are only willing to act when there are financial benefits. We found that plastic is valuable in the mainland with plastic recycling businessmen, vendors and factories. As there were no recycling systems here, plastic had no value here, and the natives weren't interested in cleaning up the island. So we made plastic valuable for the natives and now they are proactively collecting plastic all over the island. To use plastic as a currency for shopping at the Plastic Exchange Store.

St. Martin is the only coral island of Bangladesh, situated in a remote location. It is visited by millions of tourists every year. The tourists litter plastic all around the island. In the absence of a recycling management system or recycling businessmen, the plastic remains on the island.

The natives believe it is their responsibility to clean the area around their houses, but it is the government’s responsibility to keep the roads, beaches or public places clean. Therefore, they would only be willing to sporadically participate in clean up acts in exchange for money.