What is XSProject?
Based in Jakarta, Indonesia, XSProject is a non-profit organization that works to improve the lives of poor families living in Jakarta’s trash picker communities. Alongside this is a for-profit business called XSProjek that creates employment for people in these same communities manufacturing products from recycled trash.
Indonesia is changing and rural communities are being displaced. People move their families to big cities like Jakarta in search of work. With few financial resources, little education and no documentation, many have found themselves living in over-flowing garbage dumps.
Each day it is estimated there are about 450,000 trash pickers working in this city of 13 million people. They pick through the garbage, exposing themselves to infectious diseases and hazardous waste, looking for anything they can sell. By day's end, their efforts might return around US$4 - barely enough to feed their families.
XSProject works directly with the trash picker families living at the Cirendeu open garbage dump in South Jakarta.
Trash Transformed
What is upcycling?
Upcycling is an eco-friendly process that takes recycling to the next level! By adding value to waste materials they can be re-purposed to offer better environmental outcomes and even better quality than the original product. It's also called "creative re-use".
Where do we source our trash?
XSProject buys non-biodegradable plastic consumer trash from Jakarta's trash picker community. They don't usually pick up this kind of plastic because they can't sell it to a conventional recycler. We also seek corporate donations of waste materials such as used highway billboards, advertising banners, flags and auto upholstery.
Plastic Pouches: Reborn
80,000 tons of non-biodegradable flexible plastic packaging is manufactured each year in Indonesia. This kind of packaging is used for laundry, dish soap, fabric softener and other cleaning products. XSProject buys this plastic waste from the trash pickers before it reaches the landfills.
It is carefully sorted, washed, and dried in order to safeguard hygiene and quality. When the materials are ready for production, the pouches are cut and sewn into various products. The pouches are often sewn into colorful patch-work patterns to create larger pieces. We work hard to ensure our finished products are in good condition and meet our high quality standards.
Billboards: A new message
When a highway billboard sign has reached the end of its life, XSProject collects it and creates unique and durable products. The design, pattern and colors are always different depending on which part of the billboard is used to make the product.
Plastic Bags: Fused and Re-used
Single-use plastic bags exact a heavy toll on the environment. They take centuries to degrade and clog landfills. XSProject saves these bags from entering a landfill.
After careful washing, the plastic bags are layered and a simple heating process is used to fuse several bags together, creating a new, more durable material. This is then crafted into beautiful bags you can use every day.
Global Giving Verified
XSProject has been a top-ranked member of the Global Giving (GG) fundraising platform since 2009. To ensure organizations are worthy of your donor dollar, Global Giving puts organizations through a rigorous vetting process which includes site visits. GG has given XSProject their stamp of approval as an effective non-profit so you can give with confidence!
Fair Trade Guaranteed
The 10 principles of Fair Trade are very much in alignment with our values - looking after people and the environment are at the core of who we are - that's why XSProjek has chosen to become a Fair Trade Guaranteed organization. This means we have been externally audited by the World Fair Trade Organization (WFTO) to ensure our business practices are truly in line with the 10 Principles of Fair Trade. You can buy from us with the confidence we really are an ethical choice!
Take a look at what we make
Customized Products
We offer a wide range of handy off-the-shelf designs, but we are happy to customize products for bulk orders too! If you see a product in the catalog you would like to alter to meet your requirements, let us know. Equally, if you have a product you'd like us to make that isn't in the catalog, we'd love to see how we can help.
Our History
Artist's studio to social business
Begun in 2002, XSProject initially operated as an artist’s experimental studio, using waste collected by trash pickers as the artistic medium. Now it has blossomed into an Indonesian not-for-profit foundation under the name Yayasan XSProject Reguna Kreasi.
In 2007, Retno Hapsari took over as General Manager of XSProject in Jakarta. She is a native of Indonesia and a graduate of Gadjah Mada University in Jogjakarta.
Under Retno's guidance, XSProject began focusing not only on the trash pickers but the welfare of their families and the education of their children.
Today, much of her time is spent in the community of trash pickers caring for the needs of both the children and adults. She also manages the workshop where XSProject makes and sells products, utilizing the trash that the pickers depend on to make a living. Retno frequently speaks at workshops focused on finding better ways of recycling and educating Indonesia’s consumers about the social impact that waste has on the environment.
Our office and workshop is located in a house in Jakarta. It is the heart of our day-to-day operations. Raw materials are stored, sorted, washed, and sewn. Here, orders are processed, tours to Cirendeu begin and end, workshops are conducted and medical needs tended to.
Wanting to visit?
More stories
I want to study a subject that I am interested in
Our purpose is to motivate and encourage trash pickers and other less fortunate children to aim for higher education since we started this project with the GlobalGiving community 9 years ago. Coming to our year 10, we would like to start sharing with you the story of some of the children who have been with […]
Another grateful year
We are approaching the end of another difficult year at XSProject, due to the pandemic followed by many unfortunate events that happened around the globe. All of us at XSProject continue to be grateful for the support and contribution to our social programs contributing to the education and growth of our children. Our Kindergarten program […]
New School Academic Year 2023 – 2024
In Indonesia, most of the new school academic year for 2023 – 2024 started at the beginning of July. At the end of 2022, the President of RI lifted the Enforcement of Community Activity Restrictions. Since the beginning of 2023, things have started normalising. This new school year of 2023 – 2024 is now back […]
A Passionate and Inspiring Student named Syfa
A Passionate and Inspiring Student named Syfa We would like to congratulate and welcome XSProject’s new college student this year, her name is Syfa. Syfa’s education has been fully supported by XSProject since she was in Grade 1. Syfa is a passionate and enthusiastic student who aspires to become a journalist. To achieve her dream, […]
XSProject: Changing Excess Into Outreach
This article was written by Carrie Crozier and originally published in the April 2023 ANZA E-Newsletter (click here to read it). We are grateful to ANZA for sharing and raising awareness about XSProject. Many ANZA members will recognize the name XSProject – all one word – from our bazaars and coffee morning vendor visits, but […]
Gratitude to Donors for Enriching Children’s Lives
This month we would like to highlight and express our gratitude to our donors. Because of the support from our donors, our trash picker’s children can receive formal school education. The schools broaden their horizons and provide them with various opportunities including the opportunity to take part in a Study Tour or Field Study programs. […]
Graduation and New Life-Changing Opportunities
We look forward to a more fruitful and positive 2023. We have many things planned for this year but we would like to start this month by highlighting one of our students Eka who has just recently graduated from university. XSProject provided assistance for Eka to further her education through her sister Juli who works […]
XSProjek officially a Fair Trade Guaranteed organisation (WFTO)
XSProject Foundation was founded with the goal of finding solutions for how to turn unwanted waste into new products. Our main concern was for marginal groups such as scavengers and how to help them and provide an education for their children. Since the beginning we have recognized the principle-based activities of fair trade and felt […]
XSProject changes lives in Jakarta’s trash-picker community
Do they really want to be trash pickers? They do not want to be a trash-pickers, but what they want is making sure that they can eat. And what they want is making sure that the kids can eat first. And the only way they can do is by instead of begging, they have better […]
Scholarship Program for Elementary and High School Students
In 2016, as we continued to keep our mission of Education alive, XSProject started a scholarship program for elementary to high school children providing them with school fees and for those who wished to continue their higher education entering a college or university. We started with only 1 student and gradually in the second year, […]