The Founding Reason 🌏
One of the reasons we founded our store in Gili Trawangan was to be able to make a difference in the fight against climate change in a place that is heavily affected by it. If you aren't aware of Gili Trawangan, it's one of the Gili Islands, just off the northwest coast of Lombok, Indonesia.
It truly is a beautiful part of the world, and we should all do our part to preserve and protect it. Whether you were born there, moved there or just holidaying there, you shouldn't have to negotiate litter on the beach. Neither should the local ocean inhabitants. We all get that, but the reality is trash washes in, trash gets dumped and bit after bit just gets dropped.
Gili Eco Trust ♻️
The Gili Eco Trust is an NGO based on Gili Trawangan. It was founded in 2002 to protect coral reefs around the Gili islands from destructive fishing. Our partnership with Gili Eco Trust is designed to extend their reach and raise awareness, fund raise and help build an engaged following that is able to act when called upon.
By partnering with them we are able to help promote and produce positive change, on the ground, where it really counts. And that's exactly what we are doing, now having a base of operations in Gili Trawangan, we regularly host and work on Beach Clean Litter Picks 🏝️ 🚯
The Latest Beach Clean 🙏
All beach cleans start off with some insight in to what we're picking up, what can and what can't be recycled and some of the initiatives on the island that help tackle reoccurring issues. As you can see below, Sian is leading the discussion!
Once everyone has the down low, we then broke out the sacks, with sacks dedicated to different things, be it trash, recycling or glass. There's also an unreal amount of cigarette butts out there, so single use plastic bottles get a second life to collect those.
We took a rectangular route, from the store past the edge of the night market and then along the beach past Manta Dive and Sama Sama, before cutting back inland and round to the shop.
The clean up itself is really only half of the story. The cleans gather momentum and people as you move along the roads on the beach. People join in, people bring you trash to add to your bag, people see you collecting rubbish and instantly become aware of the rubbish around them and the need to pick it up.
Every beach clean educates and inspires people in to making a difference.
It would be fair to say that there were roughly 50 people on the beach clean, engaging at least the same number again whilst moving along. That's another 50 people throwing a couple of bits of trash in to bags, so that's not only trash not in the street or the beach, but people actively getting involved, perhaps for the first time.
Between our almost 50 people strong trash team we collected over 100kg of trash and recyclables. In an hour, 100kg 😮
All good beach cleans finish with a refreshment, after all it's hard work! We were of course happy to oblige and had a fridge full of Bintang and soft drinks ready for the crew.
The community here is strong, with other businesses and locals coming along to get involved, but what's more amazing is the people passing through, the backpackers and holidaymakers, giving up their time to join in the clean and help leave the Gili Islands a better place than when they found it.
We've been working with the Gili Eco Trust through our membership of 1% for the Planet for years now. Our Gili Trawangan store manager Nizar regularly shows up for the beach cleans, wherever they are taking place on the island and as the store and it's employees grow, we are proud to be able to give time and help even more.
Our Gili Trawangan store manager Nizar
You can support the actions of Gili Eco Trust by donating directly, joining them as a volunteer, or picking up one of our collaboration t shirts.
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