“We have a team of river hunters who identifies rivers with urgent trash issues, where flooding can happen after rainfall,” Pandawara member Gilang Rahma told the English newspaper.

The group of five, who are in their early twenties, was formed in 2002 after the floods damaged their houses. They saw that it was caused by rivers blocked rubbish.

They currently have a following of 7.7 million on TikTok and 1.7 M on Instagram.

The Greater Bandung area, where they reside, generates a daily waste of 2,000 tons. Unfortunately, 10 to 20% of this waste doesn’t reach the landfill and often finds its way into rivers.

The scale of waste produced in the region has surpassed landfill capacity by a staggering 800%, as reported by Prima Mayaningtyas, a West Java official.

This problem is not unique to Bandung alone; it reflects a broader issue across the country. In 2022, among a sample of 280 Indonesian cities and districts, a total of 33 million tons of waste was generated, with 36% of it not making it to landfills. Many of the country’s food and plastic waste landfills are overwhelmed and overcrowded.

In 2022, Pandawara embarked on a modest initiative to clean up rivers in their neighborhood. They were equipped with rubber hand gloves and boots to protect themselves during the cleanup process.

As they transitioned into full-time online celebrities and activists, invitations to meet government officials and receive partnership deals started pouring in for them. With their rising popularity, their clean-up efforts also expanded, reaching other islands in Indonesia.

However, TikTok, the platform they used to raise awareness, flagged some of their videos as sensitive content, fearing that the sight of decaying rubbish might disturb certain viewers.

On 10 July, the group embarked on a massive beach clean-up on Sumatra island, Lampung, where they successfully removed 300 tons of waste, with the help of 3,000 volunteers. The collected waste was then transported to appropriate landfills.