Embrace your river

Brantas XOXO – the interactive expo on plastic kicked off in Gresik and Sidoarjo, East Java. XOXO means kiss and embrace. The exposition will travel to upstream villages along the Brantas river to inform communities about the plastic waste in the river and inspire them to take action.

Plastic in the picture

Brantas XOXO provides a penetrating picture of the amount of  (micro) plastics in the river. After being welcomed by a 2.5 meter high colorful mask, you can walk through a plastic tunnel. Both are made from thousands of plastic bottles and bags that have been fished from the river  by students  and volunteers and cleaned. The Plastic in Nature photo exhibition  shows beautiful, alarming photos of plastic waste in the river. There is a “Waste in the Brantas River” photo contest on Instagram.

Microplastics in food and tap water

The Water Quality Lab invites to test water samples from the river on microplastics. Women in Sidoarjo are alarmed after finding microplastics not only in the water from the river, but also from their own tap. School children found more microplastics than plankton and wonder if this is also the case for the fish they eat.

Community Action Lab

In the Community Action Lab, people are encouraged to take action. For example, by mapping limited facilities for household waste in their village and participating in meetings of the village council. And by turning their village into a Zero Waste Village, where household waste is composted and collected separately and recycled.

Toko Pokka

In the Toko Pokka, women can fill their pots with cooking oil, flour and sugar, and buy washable diapers and other products without plastic packaging. The women in Sidoarjo like to come here because of the low prices and for advice on how to start their own plastic-free village shop.

Brantas XOXO is an initiative of the aksibrantas project.

#aksibrantas

#XOXOBrantas

#zerowastecities

#genderandwater

#drinkablerivers