Sumati Group founder Lisen visits Indonesian innovator turning plastic waste into fuel in Bali

Bali, Indonesia – 2022, Lisen visits the Get Plastic Foundation.

As part of her commitment to grassroots learning and circular innovation, Sumati Group founder Lisen made a visit during her time in Bali to Get Plastic, a local nonprofit that transforms everyday plastic waste into usable fuel.

At the heart of Get Plastic is an unassuming but revolutionary machine—now in its 12th prototype—that uses a small-scale pyrolysis process to convert plastic waste into diesel and gasoline. The machine, simple enough to be transported to nearby villages and islands, offers an energy solution that’s as radical as it is necessary in a country where waste management infrastructure struggles to keep up with rapid development and rising consumption.

https://getplastic.id/

The innovator behind this technology, originally a T-shirt printer from Java, has become a beacon of hope for communities across Indonesia. With a deep belief in do-it-yourself solutions and the power of local ingenuity, he began experimenting with waste transformation nearly a decade ago. The result is a cost-effective, mobile, and community-operated system that can produce up to one liter of fuel from one kilogram of plastic.

"This is more than just a machine, this is empowerment," Lisen said during her visit. "In a world grappling with plastic pollution and energy scarcity, grassroots innovation like this offers a glimpse into a new kind of future, one where local communities aren't just surviving these crises, but actively designing solutions."

A Growing Industry with Cautionary Edges

The visit also sparked conversations around the broader plastic-to-energy industry, a field gaining traction worldwide as countries search for alternatives to landfill and incineration. Pyrolysis, breaking down plastic at high temperatures without oxygen, is one of the leading technologies in this space. Unlike traditional burning, it avoids direct air pollution and offers a closed-loop method for energy recovery.

However, the industry is not without its risks.

Environmentalists warn that if not properly managed, pyrolysis can produce harmful emissions or encourage more plastic production under the guise of "recycling." In the case of Get Plastic, great care has been taken to refine the process through iterative prototypes, fifteen to date in the time of writing this, and to ensure that safety and environmental responsibility remain paramount.

“The long-term goal isn’t to create more demand for plastic,” the innovator and founder explains, “but to deal with the plastic we already have in a way that is responsible, low-tech, and community-accessible.”

Decentralized Solutions, Central to the Future

For Lisen, founder of the Sumati Group, a developing platform dedicated to regenerative systems, community-led design, and future-oriented living labs, the visit was more than symbolic. It was a hands-on encounter with the kind of grassroots innovation that reflects the heart of Sumati’s mission. Her time in Bali was part of a broader exploration into the complex, interconnected challenges of our time, from local waste management to global ecological risk, and a search for community-born responses shaped by necessity, creativity, and resilience.

Indonesia, one of the world’s top contributors to ocean plastic pollution, urgently needs scalable, localized interventions. Yet in the midst of this crisis, initiatives like Get Plastic are quietly shaping a different narrative, transforming trash into energy, and despair into agency, one recycled bottle, one liter of fuel, one empowered village at a time.

“This kind of innovation holds lessons far beyond Bali,” Lisen reflected. “It’s a reminder that some of the most impactful, lasting solutions don’t emerge from institutional labs or global summits, but from backyards, from ordinary people with extraordinary vision and courage to act.”

As Sumati Group plans to expand its work across Bali, Ghana, and other locations, bridging for-profit and nonprofit models, regenerative startups, and circular economies - partnerships with local changemakers like Get Plastic remain essential. Together, they help shape a future where ecological intelligence, ancestral knowledge, and daring imagination converge to build systems that truly serve life.

For more about Get Plastic and their work, visit https://getplastic.id