Siegwerk, a global provider of printing inks and coatings for packaging applications and labels, was present at a ceremony in Banyuwangi on September 16, 2023, to celebrate the inauguration of the Balak Material Recovery Facility, co-hosted by Project STOP Banyuwangi and the Banyuwangi Government.

Siegwerk became a strategic partner of Project STOP in 2020, thereby actively supporting the creation of circular waste management systems in Indonesia to eliminate leakage of plastics into the environment. Project STOP, a frontline initiative co-founded by Borealis and SYSTEMIQ, designs, implements and scales circular economy solutions to marine plastic pollution in Southeast Asia. Since its launch in 2017, Project STOP has welcomed various industrial, governmental, academic, and community partners designing, implementing, and scaling circular economy solutions to prevent plastic waste pollution.

In 2022, Project STOP’s first city partnership in Muncar, also located in the Banyuwangi regency in East Java, achieved all financial, governance and technical targets, thereby demonstrating that public-private partnerships can work to permanently reduce waste and plastics leakage into the environment and ocean. This success was further built on in Pasuruan, proving that the Project STOP model is sustainable and scalable. The inauguration of Balak Material Recovery Facility will continue the ambition to scale. The target is to reach 250,000 residents.

“Project STOP is an example of the success that can be achieved when industry and government partners collaborate effectively. For Siegwerk, this has been a very rewarding endeavor to be a part of,” says Ralf Hildenbrand, president, Americas, Global Technology, Product Safety & Responsibility and Circular Economy at Siegwerk.

“It is so important to think in terms of systems if we hope to tackle the plastic waste crisis. This means reducing packaging or designing packaging that can be recycled or reused, and additionally paying attention to waste collection and management infrastructures in areas where these aspects might be falling short. Siegwerk is dedicated to enabling circular packaging through innovation and design, and this inauguration is a celebration of achieving success in the waste management sphere as well,” adds Alina Marm, Global Head of Sustainability and Circular Economy at Siegwerk.

The Banyuwangi Regency, where Muncar and Balak are located, lies east on the island of Java, which is one of the important economic centers in Indonesia, and home of more than half of Indonesia’s population. This effort as a whole aims to contribute to Indonesia’s national commitment to reduce marine plastic pollution by 70% by 2025.