What is XSProjek?
Based in Jakarta, Indonesia, XSProjek is a social enterprise based in the midst of Jakarta’s trash picker communities, creating employment and manufacturing products from recycled trash.
Using waste materials to make products is not choosing the easy path! It introduces all sorts of challenges in the production process and often makes doing business more difficult. But it’s worth it! XSProjek products are colorful, eye-catching and practical, allowing people - like you - to turn heads while caring for the environment.
Products are upcycled - made out of waste purchased from trash pickers - it's what makes the products unique. We generally do not use waste like plastic bottles that the trash pickers can sell elsewhere.
Trash Transformed
Upcycling vs recycling - what’s the difference?
Upcycling is when you take a discarded product and repurpose it in a new product, such that you can still see the original product - for example a patchwork of plastic drink pouches.
Recycling is when you take a discarded product and break it down into a raw material state (such as melting plastic) and then turn it into something completely new. There is a lot more technology involved in this process
Fair Trade, Ethical Business
We're not just business as usual, we're concerned about the sustainability of our environment and the well-being of our staff and community. That's why we are committed to Fair Trade and are a WFTO Fair Trade Guaranteed business.
We cannot change the trash pickers' lives simply by buying trash from them and paying a fair price - that isn’t enough. But, working alongside community projects from the non-profit XSProject, we really can help improve these people’s lives.
We’ve been in the business of upcycling waste material since 2008. The business in its current form as XSProjek was created in 2019 when it was separated off from the XSProject non-profit.
Our Vision
We're not just business as usual, we're concerned about the sustainability of our environment and the well-being of our staff and community.
We cannot change the trash pickers' lives simply by buying trash from them and paying a fair price - that isn’t enough. But, working alongside community projects from the non-profit XSProject, we really can help improve these people’s lives.
"This is made out of waste"
We create products that also teach people to reduce waste. When we started, we produced grocery shopping tote bags. We created bags that you can carry to the shop, to the store, so that you can say “no” to the one-time use bag.
Then we began creating different products and they always have elements of waste. We're trying to reach younger people by creating laptop bags or pencil cases. We're trying to teach people from when they're little, that you have to reduce waste. You only have two options; You refuse anything you purchase that creates waste, or you use products from the waste that you create. That's what we're trying to teach people by using our products.
Who makes your product?
For tasks like washing or cutting the materials or fixing the office, we first look to employ people from our marginalized community of trash pickers. For more skilled tasks like sewing, product design and management, we employ trained professionals to ensure you get the very best product and service. We don’t have trash-pickers just walk in off the street and sit down at a sewing machine - it’s not that easy!
XSProjek works alongside the XSProject non-profit which sponsors the education of children from our community so that they will eventually have the opportunity to take on the more skilled roles at XSProjek and beyond!
Where do we source our trash?
XSProject buys non-biodegradable plastic consumer trash from Jakarta's trash picker community. They don't usually pick up this kind of plastic because they can't sell it to a conventional recycler. We also seek corporate donations of waste materials such as used highway billboards, advertising banners, flags and auto upholstery.
Our priority is always the trash pickers in our local community. We want to provide them with as much additional income as possible. If we can’t buy enough material off them to fulfill orders, we engage middlemen who can access a wider marketplace of trash waiting to be reused.
Plastic Pouches: Reborn
80,000 tons of non-biodegradable flexible plastic packaging is manufactured each year in Indonesia. This kind of packaging is used for laundry, dish soap, fabric softener and other cleaning products. XSProjek buys this plastic waste from the trash pickers before it reaches the landfills.
It is then carefully sorted, washed, and dried in order to safeguard hygiene and quality. When the materials are ready for production, the pouches are cut and sewn into various products. The pouches are often sewn into colorful patch-work patterns to create larger pieces. We work hard to ensure our finished products are in good condition and meet our high quality standards.
Billboards: A new message
When a highway billboard sign has reached the end of its life, XSProject collects it and creates unique and durable products. The design, pattern and colors are always different depending on which part of the billboard is used to make the product.
Plastic Bags: Fused and Re-used
Single-use plastic bags exact a heavy toll on the environment. They take centuries to degrade and clog landfills. XSProjek saves these bags from entering a landfill.
After careful washing, the plastic bags are layered and a simple heating process is used to fuse several bags together, creating a new, more durable material. This is then crafted into beautiful bags you can use every day.
Customized Products
We offer a wide range of handy off-the-shelf designs, but we are happy to customize products for bulk orders too! If you see a product in the catalog you would like to alter to meet your requirements, let us know. Equally, if you have a product you'd like us to make that isn't in the catalog, we'd love to see how we can help.
Take a look at what we make
Our History
Artist's studio to social business
Begun in 2002, XSProject initially operated as an artist’s experimental studio, using waste collected by trash pickers as the artistic medium. Now it has blossomed into a for-profit social enterprise under the name XSProjek.
In 2007, Retno Hapsari took over as General Manager of XSProject in Jakarta. She is a native of Indonesia and a graduate of Gadjah Mada University in Jogjakarta.
