Neneng started working at the waste sorting centre in March 2025 which is just across the river from her village. The mother of four sorts the hundreds of kilos of waste trapped by Interceptor 020 for recycling and as a native of the area has seen the difference the deployment has made.

She had noticed the amount of waste in the river increase over the years. As a child, she used to play in the river and catch fish but the increased volume of waste made it difficult. However, after the Interceptor arrived she started to see a difference almost immediately.

She said: “I can really see that it’s way cleaner. I am really happy because I work with like-minded people who want to have a cleaner environment and I can make a real difference here and contribute by educating my neighbors not to throw waste into the river because I will have to collect and sort it afterwards!”

Her husband relies on irregular, daily construction work but as she gets paid more than in her previous job she is able to use the increased salary to send her kids to school and provide food for her family to eat.

Sugianto Ogos followed in his father’s footsteps and started working as a fisherman at the age of ten. The 30-year-old father of two paints a picture of a youth spent playing in and around a cleaner river where it was much easier to make a living. However, as he grew older the river became more polluted, pushing him and other local fishers further out to sea to catch the fish, squid, and shrimp critical to their livelihoods.

“It was much more challenging to catch anything. Some fishermen simply couldn’t earn a living and had to try and find work elsewhere. With the trash constantly getting caught in the propeller, progress was slow. It was really tough on everyone.”

Their village of Tanjung Burung sits on the bank of the Cisadane river and the community has always relied heavily on income from the river.

“Since the barrier stopped all the trash floating downstream, the situation has improved to the point where I can catch three time as many fish compared to previously when the thick layer of plastic made it so difficult.”

With the return of the fish, village life has improved and stabilized. Recently, Sugianto took part in a coastal sweep organized by local groups and supported by The Ocean Cleanup. Their aim was to clean the legacy pollution entangled in mangroves and washed up on beaches.

Sanum Semer, 41, has been working as a silkworm farmer for five years alongside his wife Sulni. Together they own a facility in the village of Kali Baru which is used to house a storage pond for the collected worms. They employ six workers from the community who dredge the muddy riverbed each day for this sought after harvest. Their farm is one of four silkworm operations in the area which supports the local community of 700 people on the bank of the Cisadane.

A father of three, Sanum cannot remember a time when there wasn’t a stream of plastic floating down the river. This didn’t only affect silkworm farmers, but also the day-to-day lives of locals who traditionally washed clothes in the river, as their families developed itchy rashes from the polluted water. Over time, the sheer volume of trash stopped them using the river at all.

“About ten years ago we were able to farm the worms here but that ground to a halt when the volume of plastic became too great. We were then forced to travel for 90 minutes by boat to another location where we could find them and then travel the same distance back again.”

He continues: “Since the Interceptor was put here it has been much easier to catch them. We are now able to source worms every day without having to travel long distances and I’m able to sell 100kg per day. It has certainly improved our income, the water is cleaner and we don’t get the same nasty rashes from washing clothes in the river.”

Arif Priyatna Januar, 29, grew up in Gading Serpong, Tangerang Regency, an hour away from Interceptor 020, where he works as a supervisor. The father of one witnessed firsthand how the waterways he grew up beside became too polluted to fish from or swim in as a result considers his role a “dream job” where he can have a direct impact on local communities.

As a supervisor, Arif’s responsibilities include briefing his team, checking the condition of the waste in the barrier, the Interceptor, and the waste facility, as well as supervising operations and taking care of admin and finance responsibilities. He also helps organize frequent school trips so students can see the benefits of proper waste management.

In addition to stopping ocean-bound trash, Arif’s team collects trash from local communities, who in the past had to resort to throwing their waste into the river due to a lack of waste management infrastructure in the area.

“Before the waste is collected, we encourage the communities to sort it into organic and non-organic materials. Now we’re collecting waste from 250 families and have started a waste bank program on the other side of the river, with 150 people joining,” Arif explains, “The communities are happy, especially the fishermen. They are very grateful because now the waste is greatly reduced in the river mouth.”

This reduction in waste has led to a return of local wildlife in the river, with local fishermen reporting a return of the squid and fish they rely on for their livelihoods, as well as sightings of other fish species, snakes, and even turtles.

“My hope for my son and the next generations is to care more for preserving the environment. As a parent, I also have the role to educate them, to not throw waste carelessly. At the very least, we can preserve the environment around where we live.”

Antonio Lopez, 59, worked as a fisherman in El Quetzalito before the deluge of plastic forced him to find other employment opportunities.

“I can clearly remember when we started to get more trash flowing down the river from the city and it got to the point where I couldn’t catch fish anymore because of the amount of plastic in the river and ocean. By then, any fish we caught had eaten plastic or had plastic rings from drinks bottles and cans stuck around them. It was so tragic to see what had happened to the environment and how it impacted all of us in some way.”

In order to earn a living and provide for his family, Antonio was forced to switch to farming, growing beans, rice and maize to sell locally. The deployment of Interceptor 021 marked a pivotal moment in the restoration of the environment which is home to a rich variety of biodiversity, including mangroves and the second largest coral reef on the planet.

“We have noticed a huge difference in the amount of trash on the beaches and in the river since the Interceptor was deployed,” Antonio notes, “It has created job opportunities for people to maintain the barrier and remove and sort the waste… They have provided the community with the opportunity to improve their lives and surroundings.”

Like other villagers, Antonio has been able to start fishing again and helps clean the beach as part of the coastal sweep to remove legacy plastic. He has also seen fewer instances of people getting sick, which he believes is a result of lower levels of pollution in the river.

Jocelyn Ortega, 31, lives in El Quetzalito near the mouth of the Rio Motagua which flows into the Gulf of Honduras, downstream of the settlement. The mother of three separates the trash collected from the barrier into paper, plastic, wood and other organics at the sorting facility where a new composting system is being developed. Jocelyn has witnessed a host of positive impacts since Interceptor 021 was deployed.

“Since The Ocean Cleanup came here and set up the Interceptor, we have seen such a radical drop in the amount of plastic pollution going into the sea and washing up on the coastline. This Easter, for the first time in 12 years, the community was able to go to the beach to celebrate Holy Week. This used to be an important celebration for us and also for other visitors from across the region, but we simply couldn’t go there because of all the plastic.”

She adds: “It was so wonderful to go to the beach, see such a change in the amount of trash and celebrate Easter with our friends and family.  It was truly special to see our children playing in the sea without having to wade through a mass of plastic.”

In recent years, The Ocean Cleanup’s local partners from the Ministry of Environment (MARN) had been working to improve the area and manages the team of workers on site as well as those helping with the coastal sweep to remove the legacy plastic washed up on surrounding beaches. The project is also supporting the lives and livelihoods of the community and changing their approach to waste management.

Colin ‘Dean’ Palmer, 40, is a fisherman from Kingston who has lived in the suburb of Seaview Gardens his entire life. The community’s position at the mouth of Sandy Gully and proximity to Kingston Harbor turned Seaview Gardens into a popular fishing spot.

“It is life for a lot of fishermen,” Dean says, “Not just in Seaview, but we have fishermen from Huntsville that uses this water as well. For the shrimp fishermen, this is where they catch their shrimp. You have guys that specialize in catching tarpons, snooks. This is basically the livelihood of a lot of fishermen. Right here in the community.”

Colin has distinct childhood memories of swimming in the gully and seeing their fishing community thrive, but compared to today, the difference in water quality and biodiversity is stark. He recounts seeing his elders’ nets strain under the weight of their catch, the reality now is very different.

“We have not seen our green or blue water from about 1994, 1995. Now it’s a mixture of muck. The factories are lifting out their waste,” Colin continues, “So, at the level it’s at right now, I hate where it’s at, and to know that this is what we survive out of, yeah, we need to clean it so that at least we know we are getting something healthy to eat.”

Up until now, local fishermen face two choices: continue to cast off in depleted, polluted waters or spend more money on fuel to venture farther out to sea.

Listen to the full interview