Mineral water brand Ades has just launched a campaign called #niatmurni (pureintention), which encourages Jakartans to exchange empty plastic bottles for phone credit and other rewards.

Ades, part of PT Coca-Cola Amatil Indonesia, has partnered with ride-hailing service provider Gojek and waste-management organization Waste4Change for the campaign.

Coca-Cola Indonesia manager marketing hydration Mohamad Rezki Yunus said participants should collect a minimum of 50 empty plastic bottles from any brand and send them through GoSend, Gojek's delivery service, to the nearest waste bank managed by Waste4Change.

After the waste bank has received the bottles, the customer will be rewarded with 2,000 Ades points, equivalent to Rp 20,000 (US$1.4). However, customers will need to spend between Rp 15.000 and Rp 40,000 to pay for the GoSend fare depending on the waste bank’s location.

The points can be redeemed for phone credits or prepaid tokens for electricity or simply added to one’s GoPay balance — Gojek’s digital payment system.

“A lot of Jakartans live busy lives. We want to make it convenient for those who want to recycle their plastic bottles but don’t know where to do it or simply do not have the time,” Rezki said during the campaign launch last Thursday.

He added that Jakartans could join the campaign by accessing the Gojek mobile app or the Waste4Change website.

Gojek logistics head Junaidi said the joint campaign aligned with GoJek’s ongoing eco-friendly campaign GoGreener.

"Our company has recently launched the GoGreener campaign, which aims to help our customers, our merchants and our drivers switch to a more eco-friendly lifestyle," he said.

Through the GoGreener campaign, GoJek provides an option for its customers to forego plastic utensils when ordering food. It also provides drivers with reusable bags to avoid single-use plastic when delivering food to customers.

Waste4Change founder and managing director Mohammad Bijaksana Junerosano hoped the campaign would encourage Jakartans to sort their waste. He said most residents were still mixing their waste.

Before launching the #niatmurni campaign, Ades ran another campaign that successfully collected thousands of plastic bottles from Jakarta’s Car Free Day events. The bottles were then assembled into a billboard to raise awareness about the importance of recycling.

Besides Ades and GoJek, many other big brands have launched initiatives to tackle waste problems.

Perhaps the most glittering recycling campaign comes from state-owned pawnshop PT Pegadaian.

Under the Gade Clean and Gold campaign, Pegadaian has built around 50 waste banks in 16 cities where customers can sell their recyclable waste in exchange for gold savings.

Since last November, fast food chain McDonald’s has stopped providing plastic straws to its customers, noting that the measure could reduce its outlets’ plastic waste by 35 percent.

Novrizal Tahar, a waste management director at the Environment and Forestry Ministry, appreciated the measure. He said Indonesia produced a massive amount of plastic-straw waste.

"A lot of customers ask for two or more plastic straws every time they order a drink in a restaurant. It’s no wonder Indonesia produces around 93 million tons of plastic-straw waste each year," Novrizal said.

The Body Shop Indonesia has been running a campaign called Bring Back Our Bottle in all its stores since 2007. Customers get points when they return empty bottles of cosmetics, skincare products and perfume to Body Shop stores. The points can be exchanged for discounts or shopping coupons.

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