Journal

What the Tide Leaves Behind

Bottle caps, fish skin and fallen leaves: three things thrown away every day, and what they became.

Close-up of rippling deep blue ocean water

Walk any market or shoreline in Indonesia and you will see the same thing: material that is still good, on its way to the fire. The makers we work with started by noticing it.

Plastic cups and straws scattered on a yellow surface — Two kinds of waste, one way of looking at them.

Fresh red snapper and grouper at a fish market — Two kinds of waste, one way of looking at them.

Clean enough to sort

Bottle caps are the one plastic that comes out of a river clean and uniform. Collected by the kilo, they can be pressed into something you keep for decades.

“The river was carrying more bottle caps than fish.”

Dimas Prasetyo

Nothing cut down

Areca palms drop their leaf sheaths on their own. Pressed with heat and water, they become plates that go back into the soil within weeks.