Tribefunds
Community development

Help Fishing Communities affected by the X-Press Pearl explosion build livelihoods collecting plastic - THIS CAMPAIGN IS NOW OVER

Rs. 1,613,000 raised of Rs. 2,016,000
99 contributors
80% Funded
Left
80% Complete
“Creating livelihoods by turning waste to wealth.”

Savera Weerasinghe, Co-Founder - Ananta Sustainables


BACKGROUND

As the X-Press Pearl sinks deeper into our ocean bed, its catastrophic impact continues.

The fishing community already faces great volatility with firsthand encounters of a decimated ecosystem and the rapidly changing climate; this volatility is compounded by a Covid-19 lockdown as procuring goods, transferring money, or even buying basic provisions has been made much harder, only worsened by monsoon flooding of their homes. Devastatingly, it doesn't stop there. The cocktail of chemicals and oil on board the ship seeped into the marine ecosystem devastating marine ecosystems all around Sri Lanka. These hazardous chemicals and nurdles ingested by fish populations means these communities are unable to depend on a livelihood, passed down for generations.

The repercussions of this catastrophe, exacerbates the repercussions of an existing plastic waste crisis and will ripple through our marine ecosystem for decades, even centuries to come.

Since these communities cannot fish, what if they could 'fish' for something else from the oceans and from their surrounding environs that generates a source of income?

THE PROJECT

● 20 Fishermen on the Kepungoda beach (directly opposite the wreck 9.5 nautical miles away) are willing to collect plastic( PET, HDPE and LDPE) for LKR150/KG.
● Recyclers are willing to pay LKR30+/Kg. Recyclers say they cannot increase the price any further because they cannot afford to go up against the price of virgin plastic,. (i.e the nurdles that are wreaking havoc).
● This is insufficient as a livelihood or as a living wage---For plastic collection to serve as a substantial livelihood each fisherman/fisherwoman has to earn at least LKR1500/day. (LKR 37,500/month).
● For this, each individual would have to collect 10KG/day of PET, HDPE,LDPE.
● That is a total collection of 200 KG of plastic per day amongst 20 individuals.
● This crowdfund will subsidize the additional price of LKR120 to help support a viable livelihood by plastic collection per Kilo.
- Every donation will be matched by our funding partners at Tiqri.
● Traceability and transparency of collection and transactions will be via Empower.Eco
● 100% of the crowdfund would be disseminated to each collection point lead by 2 leaders appointed by the group.

Community coordination, partner facilitation and transparent fund distribution: Ananta Sustainables
Tracking technology and verification: Empower.Eco
Waste Management Partners: WALK
Funding Partner: Tiqri

A Citizen fund to implement a plastic collection livelihood model can show businesses that this is a viable model they can support. Instead of paying for the cost of pollution, businesses can support the collection business.






Given the challenging times Sri Lankan health care sector is facing currently, we are confident that donors will be generous enough to help us achieve the target of 2.5Million LKR. However, entertaining the possibility of not achieving the target 2.5 Million LKR, we decided to stratify the money target into five levels that would correspond with five groups of medical equipment with increasing value.
Description Total Cost
(a) Cost per KGs of Plastic paid to fishermen by crowdfund - (Rs.120 paid by Crowdfund + Rs. 30 by the recycler) Rs.120
(b) Number of KG collected by each fishermen 10
(c) Number of fishermen 20
(d) Duration 3 months ~ 84 days
Total Requirement - (a) x (b) x (c) x (d) Rs.2,016,000



Ananta Sustainables is a sustainable packaging sourcing, supply and solutions provider in Sri Lanka, offering industries with compostable packaging and waste management solutions. Ananta Sustainables consults leading FMCG companies to transition to sustainable packaging and also organizes community based events, finding new and creative ways to spark conversation and create awareness of single-use plastic consumption; from Trash Sculptures, to 'Plogging' Races and workshops and community forums, Ananta Sustainables is also working with local producers to create packaging from locally sourced materials, that pushes the bounds of locally produced packaging from sustainable to restorative.

Waste Action LK [WALK] is a coalition for responsible businesses, citizen groups and state institutions working toward sustainable waste management.




We hope to have 2 weeks of funding in place, starting June 20th to move forward with the cleanups and generate a source of income for the fishing community as soon as possible.

Provide details

- Week 01 – 03 - Collect funds for campaign, once 2 weeks worth of funds have been achieved, clean ups will begin

- Week 04 – 06 - Upto 8400 KG of plastic collected and Fishermen paid out bi-weekly

- Week 07 – 09 - Upto LKR 73,500/per fishermen earned

- Week 10 – 12 - Funds equivalent of 3months collection i.e 16,800KG worth of plastic collected




20th June 2021 - And we are off with our campaign, really looking forward to your support!.


savera

My name is Savera Weerasinghe and I am the founder of Ananta Sustainables (Pvt.) Ltd. and the Co-Founder of Waste Action LK

Contact details for further inquiries:

Name: Savera Weerasnighe, Co-Founder Ananta Sustainables
Address: 218 Bullers Road Colombo 7
Phone Number: +94 (0) 77 385 0221
Email: savera.weerasinghe@gmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/anantasustainables
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anantasustainables/?hl=en