Margins 2 Markets – Turning Coastal Waste into Market Opportunities From Margins to Markets: A Digital, Inclusive Strategy to Tackle Coastal Waste
Grantee(s)
CleanHub GmbH
Objectives
- Establish regional collection, pre-processing, and recycling infrastructure to efficiently capture plastic waste from coastal areas and connect it to national and international recycling markets.
- Expand the collection of plastics and discarded fishing gear through incentive schemes, collection points, and awareness-raising activities.
- Create safe and fair income opportunities for formal and informal waste collectors through training, occupational health and safety measures, transparent payment systems, and financial inclusion.
- Use digital traceability, compliance standards, and real-time data to improve transparency, attract investment, and develop a replicable model for other coastal regions.
Duration
2026-07-01 till 2030-06-30
Location
Indonesia, India, Tanzania
Funding Amount
4,478,642.45 €
Project partner(s)
- Recity Network Pvt. Ltd. (Recity)
Recovered Indonesia (RECO)
The Recycler
Copyright: istock / Wirestock
Reducing marine litter: What are the specific challenges in Indonesia, India and Tanzania?
The Raja Ampat Islands in Indonesia, Zanzibar in Tanzania, and the coastal region of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu are among the world's most ecologically valuable marine regions. Raja Ampat lies at the heart of the Coral Triangle and is home to around 75 percent of all known coral species. Zanzibar’s coastal waters contain some of East Africa’s most diverse reef ecosystems and provide habitat for sea turtles and endangered dolphin species. Tamil Nadu’s 1,076-kilometre coastline supports the livelihoods of more than one million fishers and includes important coral, mangrove, and intertidal ecosystems surrounding the Gulf of Mannar Biosphere Reserve.
At the same time, all three regions face similar challenges. Many coastal and island communities are remote, lack adequate waste management infrastructure, and have only limited access to recycling markets. As a result, plastic waste often has little economic value, while collection, transport, and recycling are costly. Population growth, increasing tourism, and rising plastic consumption further exacerbate the problem.
In Tamil Nadu, around 430,000 tonnes of plastic waste are generated every year, a significant share of which enters the marine environment through rivers or improper disposal. In Zanzibar, approximately 60 percent of waste is not managed properly. Outside urban areas, suitable waste collection and recycling infrastructure is lacking, resulting in waste being burned or illegally dumped. In Sorong, the main gateway to Raja Ampat, existing waste management infrastructure is insufficient for the growing population. On the islands of Raja Ampat, high transport costs and limited access to recycling markets further hinder sustainable waste management.
The result is increasing plastic pollution in sensitive coastal and marine ecosystems, threatening biodiversity, fisheries, tourism, and the livelihoods of local communities.
How does the project contribute to reducing marine litter?
Margins 2 Markets is building key components of an effective waste management system in Raja Ampat/Sorong (Indonesia), Tamil Nadu (India), and Zanzibar (Tanzania). The project establishes collection, pre-processing, and recycling infrastructure and links these with digital monitoring and traceability systems. In doing so, it addresses a key challenge: recyclable materials often have little economic value because waste volumes are dispersed, contamination reduces material quality, and transport distances are long. As a result, collection systems and informal recycling markets remain underdeveloped, while plastics are burned, dumped, or leak into marine ecosystems.
In Tamil Nadu, a regional Material Recovery Facility (MRF) is being established in Ramanathapuram, where fishing nets and marine plastics will be cleaned, sorted, and baled. At the same time, collection activities are being expanded across 14 coastal districts. In Zanzibar, the project is developing pre-processing infrastructure to increase material density and reduce transport costs. This includes two facilities near Kendwa and Paje, two major tourism beaches, as well as a central Material Recovery Facility located between Zanzibar City and the landfill. In Raja Ampat/Sorong, M2M connects local collection and pre-processing sites on the islands with a central facility in Sorong. This allows plastics to be sorted, consolidated, and prepared more efficiently for transport to recycling markets.
Building on this foundation, Margins 2 Markets expands plastic collection through incentive schemes, collection points, awareness-raising activities, and collaboration with households, fishing communities, tourism businesses, and informal waste collectors. Training, occupational health and safety measures, transparent pricing, and a digital traceability system create safer income opportunities while ensuring transparency across material flows.
In this way, the project aims to prevent approximately 40,000 tonnes of plastic waste from entering coastal and marine ecosystems. At the same time, it will develop a replicable model for establishing economically viable circular economy systems in other coastal regions.