Indonesia firm turns plastic into bricks, faces uphill task in recycling push
- An Indonesian entrepreneur who makes bricks from single-use plastic wants businesses to be committed to recycling
- But she faces challenges in convincing a construction industry that is more focused on profitability than the environment
Her family knows not to stand in her way on environmental issues, especially five years ago when she came up with the idea of making bricks using single-use plastic to counter pollution and the capital Jakarta’s high-emissions building boom.
Using machinery from her family’s conventional brick factory and tapping into her zero-waste lifestyle, Sabrina and her friend Novita Tan launched their green construction materials startup Rebricks in 2018.
“My family usually tell me to go ahead and do whatever I want. If people disagree with me, I will [still] do it,” said the 37-year-old, who regularly locks horns with her siblings over sorting household waste and recycling in their shared home. “‘Just do it’ is what we always tell people who want to get into recycling initiatives.”
With more than half the region’s population living in cities and rising, Asia’s urban population is soaring as wealth increases and people seek better lives – putting huge pressure on infrastructure, public services and affordable housing.
Bustling Jakarta, which has 10 million inhabitants, is dotted with construction sites that emit high levels of greenhouse gases, working on new train queues, malls, leisure complexes, flats and offices.
