16
‘When a bottle hits the
water, it’s too late’
Saving and ultimately recycling the ever-growing stream of PET bottles heading
for the oceans may seem like ‘mission impossible’ in Indonesia, the world’s big-
gest marine plastics polluter. But Max Craipeau and his SEArcular business initia-
tive intend to prove it is indeed possible.
cling factory in Indonesia in 2018, I
quickly realised we could not only cre-
ate a huge business here but also
duplicate the model across the region.
When Hongkong turned out to be the
toughest place in the world in terms
of Covid restrictions, my wife and I
packed our bags and chose Singapore
Frenchman Max Craipeau, ceo of plas-
tics recycling and trading firm
Greencore, has been living and work-
ing in Asia for almost two decades,
first in Shanghai, then Hongkong. In
2021, at the peak of the pandemic,
Craipeau moved to Singapore from
where he coordinates Greencore’s
activities.
Recycling International caught up with
Craipeau shortly after he returned
from a four-week business trip to
Cambodia and Indonesia.
Greencore operates a modern facility
to process plastic scrap in Surabaya
on Java. Local collection and recycling
are carried out under the newly
launched SEArcular brand name.
It was his first visit to Indonesia since
the outbreak of the pandemic.
‘Fantastic, I finally had the chance to
get back,’ says Craipeau. ‘Great to
see my wonderful team and my facto-
ry again, as well as the numerous plas-
tics collection projects which we have
developed or cooperated with.’
Travel in Asia is still very much restrict-
ed due to Covid, which has obviously
had an impact on many businesses
including Craipeau’s. ‘Singapore was
the pioneer in Asia of “living with
Covid” and was the first in Asia to
agree vaccinated travel lanes (VTLs)
with several countries in the region,’
he explains. ‘Vaccinated Singapore
residents like myself can travel with-
out quarantine. However, some coun-
tries including Indonesia signed this
VTL agreement in a unilateral way.
Although I was able to return from
Indonesia to Singapore without quar-
antine, I was locked up for seven days
in a hotel in Jakarta.’
HOW DID YOU KILL THE TIME?
‘I prepared all the meetings and physi-
cal visits I was planning to do during
the following weeks while staying in
Indonesia and organised many Zoom
meetings.
Since there was no room service, I was
confronted with the enormous amount
of PET bottles one consumes in a day
and decided to post a photo of all the
bottles in my room to raise awareness
about plastic pollution. The post
attracted record numbers of likes and
comments including one from
Singapore’s minister for sustainability
and the environment. When my quar-
antine ended, I took 20 empty PET
bottles to my factory in Surabaya to
be recycled.’
WHAT MADE YOU DECIDE TO
MOVE FROM HONGKONG TO
SINGAPORE?
‘After opening my first plastic recy-
A U T H O R Martijn Reintjes
16-17-18-19_indonesiapart1.indd 16 28-02-2022 16:00
