We are Earthshot nominees
We are incredibly proud and excited to be nominated for the 2026 Earthshot Prize. Launched by Prince William and Sir David Attenborough, the Earthshot Prize is the world’s most prestigious environmental award, dedicated to accelerating groundbreaking solutions that can repair and regenerate our planet.
Circular Banyuwangi: Ending Single-Use Plastics at Regency Scale
With Circular Banyuwangi PISCES Relay brings together researchers, innovators, governments and communities to demonstrate that a waste-free, ocean-safe future is possible at scale.
Working in Banyuwangi Regency, East Java – home to 1.7 million people across coastal villages, rural communities and fast-growing urban centres – we are designing and implementing Indonesia’s first regency-wide circular plastics economy, ready to be replicated across the Global South.
Why Banyuwangi
Banyuwangi is one of Indonesia’s most biodiverse coastal regions — part of the Coral Triangle and home to UNESCO Blambangan Biosphere Reserve, Alas Purwo and Baluran National Parks and Banyuwangi Marine Conservation Park – with vital mangrove, seagrass and coral ecosystems that support fisheries, tourism, and local livelihoods. A gateway to Bali, it spans dense towns, rural and peri-urban villages, and active coastal communities.
It also faces major challenges: limited waste services, high consumption of low-value plastics and significant coastal leakage. Each year it generates about 180,000 tonnes of municipal waste,15-25% plastic.
Communities here are already embracing waste collection and management, have already taken part in PISCES Living Labs, mapping waste flows, testing refill models.
What Makes Circular Banyuwangi Different
Circular Banyuwangi is distinctive because it delivers a fully integrated circular plastics model at regency scale – across urban, peri-urban, rural and coastal communities where most of the world’s plastic leakage occurs, yet where very few circular solutions have ever been proven.
Our approach is integrated and deeply inclusive, aligning sectors rarely connected, linking social innovation, infrastructure, behaviour change, and governance through evidence-based systems science. PISCES Living labs embed innovation within daily life revealing cultural norms, testing consumer motivations, and enabling solutions that communities actually want and will sustain.
We tackle plastic pollution across the full value chain:
- reducing plastics at source (refill/reuse and circular products)
- improving waste collection, integration and recovery
- strengthening informal waste workers’ livelihoods
- preventing leakage into rivers, mangroves and coral reefs
- shifting household and business behaviours
- using real-time monitoring to guide and replicate impact
If circularity can be demonstrated in Banyuwangi – with its mix of dense towns, fishing villages, farms and biodiverse coastlines – then it becomes achievable for hundreds of similar regions across the Global South.
Who Delivers Circular Banyuwangi
Circular Banyuwangi is led by PISCES Relay, working in partnership with the Banyuwangi Regency Government (Banyuwangi Hijau), Project STOP, Enviu, Alner, BIOPAC, Emvitrust and others — with BVRio as our official Earthshot Prize nominator.
Why Us?
We unite the science, leadership and enterprise needed to turn circular solutions into real change at scale. This change is already underway: With exceptional local leadership and a rare long-term partnership, we are already delivering one of the world’s largest coastal waste programmes, now serving more than 260,000 people with coverage expanding rapidly; thousands more added every month.
Living labs and Refill pilots have been tested, with strong community participation and local government commitment underpinning the next stage.
Our coalition members are already delivering alternative seaweed-based packaging and supporting new circular enterprises in Jakarta and are ready to expand to Banyuwangi – creating a strong base for rapid scaling.
The PISCES Relay consortium provides the data, tools and partnerships to scale this impact nationally.
Five-Year Vision
By 2030, Circular Banyuwangi aims to:
- improve waste services for 1.7 million residents
- scale refill/reuse across 2,500+ sales points
- reduce single-use plastics across key categories
- cut leakage into rivers, mangroves and coastal waters
- strengthen livelihoods for informal workers
- provide a model scalable to 270 million Indonesians
- inspire replication across the Global South
Global Relevance
Most circular-economy work focuses on big cities — yet most of the world lives in peri-urban and rural areas, where infrastructure is limited but social cohesion is strong. Circular Banyuwangi offers a practical, scalable pathway for countries facing rising plastic production, limited waste systems, coastal vulnerability and rapid urbanisation.
This initiative supports global goals on waste reduction, ocean health, climate resilience, livelihoods and sustainable development.
This Page Will Evolve
We will continue updating this page throughout our Earthshot journey.