27/03/2026
Yesterday I had the opportunity to visit the sites of on Batam with co-founder and CEO Tom Peacock-Nazil - this was both a sobering and inspiring visit. The abject poverty combined with the sheer volume of waste in these communities in direct eyesight from Singapore was striking.
But the people in these communities and the team of Seven Clean Seas were an inspiration. They showed that through collaboration, it is possible to make a positive social and environmental impact - community by community, despite the daily deluge of waste flowing into these communities.
We saw the process from collection, sorting, and various types of recycling/reuse, see enclosed photos. The roof material (from waste material that are the most difficult to recycle conventionally) has been used to replace asbestos roofing of the housing to the most vulnerable in these communities.
The work is labor intensive, so by a modern mindset of automation and efficiency, this would on face value appear to be an effort that would be difficult to scale sufficiently. But Seven Clean Seas offers formal employment in these communities, where even modest pay makes a big difference - so the hurdle to scaling up these efforts is not the cost of labor, but being able to scale up equipment to repurpose material whether this be bricks, roofing material, furniture, or even art - see the photos…
At heart this is a poverty issue that ends up with waste flowing into the oceans. And there are thousands of poor communities like this - but if we are to be serious about tackling waste flowing into the oceans - Seven Clean Seas is a model to follow and support.
Thank you, Tom and your smiling team, for a day that most certainly had an impact on me.
