With Southeast Asia urgently needing to tackle plastic waste, Alner’s reuse and refill solutions offered a scalable, sustainable alternative to single-use packaging. In this session, we explored the strategies and practical steps Alner had taken to implement reuse systems that had already avoided 1 million tons of plastic waste in Indonesia and their plans to scale these solutions across the region.

The session included insights from Alner's partnerships with FMCG brands, micro-retailers, and community stakeholders. We also addressed the challenges faced when scaling reuse programs and shared actionable recommendations for replicating these models across Southeast Asia. Attendees learned about the economic and environmental benefits and the role that government, businesses, and consumers could play in supporting reuse and refill initiatives.

Speaker​ 

Bintang Ekananda | Cofounder and CEO, Alner

Bintang Ekananda is an environmental engineer and circular economy advocate. As the co-founder and CEO of Alner, a startup specializing in returnable and refillable packaging for daily necessities, he leads efforts to eliminate waste. Bintang holds a master’s degree in Energy & Environment from the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom. Additionally, he serves as an assistant professor in the Environmental Engineering Department at the University of Muhammadiyah Sorong, West Papua, Indonesia. With 8 years of experience in environmental engineering and circular business models, Bintang has been recognized as a Forbes Under 30 Social Impact Honoree for 2022 and featured in the Eco-Business Youth A-List 2022 as one of Southeast Asia’s most impactful sustainability leaders.

Moderator​ 

Anna Oposa | Circular Economy Specialist (Consultant), ADB