From Burning Trash to Global Care: My UNOC Journey

I never imagined that one day I would find myself standing in Nice, France, among world leaders at the 2025 United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC), representing Mudfish No Plastic, the grassroots NGO we founded in 2019 in Indonesia to bring environmental education to children, teachers, and communities. It was both an honor and a daunting responsibility to speak on behalf of 285 million men, women, and children, mothers and educators, who live with polluted seas, toxic air, and a painful lack of solutions. Though I stood there as a single person, every word I spoke carried the weight of millions. This was more than a personal milestone, it marked a shift: from quietly working at the margins of the crisis to raising our voice at its very center. The experience affirmed a truth I’ve long felt: that frontline realities, the daily lives and struggles of real people must guide global action, or the distance between policy and lived experience will only continue to grow. I’m proud that we’ve reached over 20,000 children and teachers, helping them reduce single-use plastic in ways that are culturally meaningful and economically feasible. And I’m equally proud that our organization was officially accredited to participate in UNOC 2025.

🔹 What We Brought to UNOC 2025

1.⁠ ⁠Launching the Tangaroa Alliance

Together with partners like Fundación Ariana Rapa Nui, Galapagos Conservation Trust, and Pacific Plastics: Science to Solutions, we launched the Tangaroa Alliance, a powerful Indigenous-led platform calling for global plastic regulations rooted in: Heads (knowledge), Hearts (dialogue), and ⁠Hands (commitment).  My contribution was to give voice to communities like ours, that are left out of global decisions, but deeply affected by them. We called for action rooted not only in science, but in humanity.

2.⁠ ⁠Grassroots Ocean Leadership Panel

Alongside leaders from SeaSisters Sri Lanka, SOA Peru, and others, we explored how true grassroots action grows from lived experience, not from academic theory. I shared how we use movement, music, and storytelling to make environmental education something people want to engage with, not something handed down from above. We must connect before we can correct. That’s where real change begins.

3.⁠ ⁠Oxford-Style Debate aboard the METEOR

Motion: “It’s already too late to save our oceans.”

I stood on the “yes” side, not because I’ve lost hope, but because false optimism is a luxury we can’t afford.

I said: “Cleanups without policy are like tears in the ocean.”

Thank you to Onewater, Asian Development Bank, and Michael Sealey for the powerful stage and to Chris, and Solene for believing that my voice needed to be heard.

4.⁠ ⁠Ocean Action Panel: Marine Pollution from Land-Based Sources

Although Mudfish No Plastic was listed as a speaker in this panel, unfortunately, due to limited time, I didn’t have the opportunity to deliver my input

If I had spoken, here’s what I would have urged:

•⁠  Eliminate unnecessary single-use plastics, redesign polluting supply chains, and enforce producer responsibility for waste.

• Forge partnerships across sectors and borders to advance smart, coordinated waste management.

• Build circular economies that cut pollution, generate good local jobs, and strengthen community leadership.

• Invest in lasting solutions, education, infrastructure, and enforcement to tackle pollution at its root.

• Shift frontline communities from symbolic inclusion to real decision-making power.

• Design social subsidies that simultaneously fight poverty and pollution, ensuring fairer, cleaner futures.

And most importantly:

• Strong bans and enforcement, not voluntary guidelines

• Producer accountability, not consumer guilt

• Real investment in local governments, teachers, and systems

• Frontline inclusion at the policy table, not just on posters

• Circular economies that create jobs, not just one-off cleanup drives

• Poverty solutions that reduce waste, not policies that ignore the link

💙  UNOC 2025 was a reality check. What the conference made clear is that plastic pollution is not an abstract problem. It’s a crisis in our daily lives.  A world in which adults and children think it is ok to burn trash, rather than reduce our production of it.  A world in which teachers who want to educate about environmental protection are not given support or guidance.   The conference also made it clear that awareness of the problem is not missing, but what is missing is meaningful action, with honesty, urgency, and equity

UNOC reminded us that grassroots participation in the debate isn’t optional, it’s essential.

Now that our voice has crossed the ocean, we won’t go quiet.

We came to the table. And we’re staying there.

The ocean cannot wait.

And neither can we.

Let’s stop cleaning up after broken systems.

Let’s build the systems we truly need.