JakartaPost-Aug 14, 2025
Born out of Bali’s growing trash problem, Bali Waste Cycle (BWC) is seeking to expand its business, balancing profit, purpose and sustainability. The province, one of the world’s top tourist destinations, has been overwhelmed with mounting volumes of unmanaged waste amid poor and uneven infrastructure. Bothered by the growing piles of waste, much of which comes from single-use plastic, Olivia Anastasia Padang bootstrapped her waste management initiative in 2019 to get BWC off the ground. “We saw plastic everywhere, and during the pandemic, everyone was using single-use packaging. So, we thought, why not build a local company that focuses on waste management?” she told The Jakarta Post on July 25. A 2019 study revealed that Bali generates 1.6 million tons of trash per year, including around 303,000 tons of plastic waste. In the first two years, revenue grew at a snail’s pace, and BWC failed to break even. Olivia has maintained community engagement through waste management education and by teaming up with various stakeholders, including recycling centers and informal initiatives to open waste collection sites. “We are focusing on community engagement, not technology […] on a small island like Bali, what we need is people power, not technology,” she explained. Combining community-based waste collection with commercial operations, BWC, incorporated as CV Bakti Bumi Berseri, offers waste management solutions to businesses and local governments. Its key revenue streams stem from serving hotels, restaurants and other commercial clients in Bali. Through public-private partnerships (PPP), BWC also collaborates with village heads and local authorities to manage local waste and generate income from selling sorted, cleaned recyclable materials collected through community partners and supplied to industrial recyclers. Read more at: https://www.thejakartapost.com/business/2025/08/14/bali-waste-cycle-aims-to-scale-up-to-make-recycling-profitable.html.
