Plastic Pollution Challenge
Indonesia is suffocating under a mountain of waste. 70 million tons of waste is produced every year, of which 50-70% is leaked into rivers, seas, and burned openly. This creates direct hazards to people, animals, and nature, while also accelerating climate change through carbon dioxide and methane gas emissions. Additionally, landfills remain at overcapacity due to limited waste processing infrastructure. Currently, most of Indonesia’s landfills are almost full, as the waste has not been properly and efficiently processed over the years. Aside from leaking into the environment, tons of “useless” plastic waste end up in landfills, and there has not been any efficient solution to combat this non-biodegradable pollution.
Solution
Sampangan created “The Magic Box”: an innovative waste processing machine with zero pollution that can process all kinds of waste without the need to be sorted, and convert them into new high value materials. It is also able to process 100% plastic waste. The Magic Box is a modular system that has the capacity to process up to 10 tons of waste per day. It requires low cost of operation in terms of manpower, maintenance, and electricity.
Innovation
- Solid activated carbon, used in agriculture to reduce or eliminate irrigated water and increase farming productivity, and in construction as a concrete replacement that has tensile strength and more thermal insulation.
- Liquid carbon, used in agriculture as a bio-fertilizer.
- Liquid smoke, used as a bio-disinfectant for public sanitation and as a cleaning agent.
- Separated and cleaned intact metal.
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The Magic Box is a patented carbonized technology, which is an oxygen free, thermo-chemical reaction process that converts waste into sustainable materials based on its boiling, melting vapor, and flash points. Carbonization is the combination of pyrolysis and gasification at one reactor, and uses heat radiation at 100-400 degrees Celsius.
The outputs from the process are:
Impact
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Sampangan uses the UN Sustainable Development Goals impact metrics, and below are some measured impacts that Sampangan has achieved so far:
Environmental:
Social:
Economic:
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Business Model
Sampangan operates on two business models:
- Providing a waste processing service for B2B and B2G. Waste processed by our technology is converted into products.
- Circular economy, using the output of waste processing into businesses in agriculture, cleaning & sanitation, and construction.
Traction & Key Metrics
Sampangan has deployed 18 Magic Boxes across 7 provinces in Indonesia, and has grown 20 fold in revenue since being incorporated in 2019. The Magic Box and its outputs have been lab tested, certified and audited by Indonesia’s Ministry of Environment and Forestry (KLHK), SUCOFINDO, Bogor Agriculture Institute, and Pusat Penelitian Kelapa Sawit (Palm Oil Research Center).
Below are some awards and recognitions that Sampangan has obtained:
- Accelerate2030
- Habitat for Humanity Sheltertech Grant
- SEED Low Carbon Awards
- JICA Grant
- Gold medals in the following global innovation expos: MTE & ITEX Malaysia, Japan Intellectual Property Association, iENA Germany, INPEX USA, The British Invention Show, Soul International Invention Fair Korea.
Sampangan has grown a global network and partnerships:
Vision
Our short term goals for the next 3 years is to convert 4000 tons of waste per day into sustainable materials, and expand our operations internationally to Brazil, Australia, and Japan.
Our long term goal is to build the largest global circular economy ecosystem.
Investment
We are currently fundraising our first round of financing for USD 500k – 1 million.
Funding allocation breakdown:
- Ramp up technology & product development.
- Ramp up hiring on sales, product, communications, and business development.
- Build in digital and data capabilities in our ecosystem.
- Deploy more pilots that will unlock new markets.
Contact
For more informations about us :
