Our Circular Economy Project

Q. What is the Circular Economy Project?

A. It is a project by Mega Greenlife OPC that barters coconut products for food waste, plastic waste, and seed waste (expiring seeds that need to be planted) in order to create zero waste.

Q. How does it work?

A. We ask restaurants and retailers for unsold food or goods which we give our coconut products to.

Q. How do you collect the goods?

We collect the goods by bicycle and collect them in our implementing partners who will sort them according to value.

Q. How do you earn?

We earn by the goods that we get. In other cases, we collect it for other partners. In that case, we get a percentage of the collection for ourselves.

Q. How many implementing partners do you have?

We implement the system per city. At the moment we have 3 implementing partners:

Q. What do you do with the products that you cannot dispose of?

Our implementing partners donate them to poor people as part of the social responsibility campaign. Our recipients must be registered in the online app.

Q. How do you handle non edible food waste?

As much as possible, we try to get the food early from the retailers to avoid spoilage. To achieve this, we offer our coconut products for barter.

In some cases, the retailer still gives us non-edible food waste which we have to compost and offer to urban gardens which we set up through Unlad Saka.

Q. How do you set up urban gardens?

We ask the local government or village association or private homeowners for space that they would like to convert to urban gardens. We provide the seeds and compost, as well as consultation. We then try to upsell our cocopeat.

Q. How many urban gardens have you created?

In 2022, we started with various plots totalling 540 square meters. Out of which, only 80 square meters produced crops.

Q. Why was so little produced?

We relied on the homeowners to do the work. We found that not all of them were interested, and so the crops died. Some plots were flooded by a typhoon.

Q. How can you prevent the plots from failing?

We have asked assistance from Unlad Saka and have applied for a grant to fund for at least 2 laborers to maintain the urban gardens.

Q. How long will the project last?

The grant lasts for 18 months. Afterwards, we expect the communities to be able to do it by themselves.