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Today, what was once an informal effort has grown into a community movement supported through IslandPlas. Across Ulanga and neighboring villages, youth groups are transforming how plastic waste is collected, understood, and managed. What makes their story different is not only the cleanup itself, but the way local ownership has grown around it.

At the center of this effort is Ally Junaid, environmental lead within the National Steering Committee for his village and a member of the Bundu La Mji Association. Before IslandPlas, the association had broader social ambitions but no dedicated environmental campaign. The project became a turning point.

IslandPlas provided a practical boost by supporting transport costs for waste collection, allowing local groups to begin organizing around plastic recovery in a more structured way. What started as occasional cleaning activities gradually became an official community effort. Ulanga’s local association adopted cleanup and plastic collection as a regular activity, expanding participation beyond volunteers to include people involved in construction work and village maintenance.

For Ally, the change was not only environmental. It was organizational.

The village now sees waste collection as part of community responsibility rather than occasional volunteerism.

Ahmad, who manages logistics within the group, has watched the transformation closely. He coordinates the movement of plastic waste from Ulanga to Mitsamihouli, ensuring collected materials reach recovery points instead of returning to informal dumping.

His motivation is personal. With an interest in agriculture, Ahmad noticed visible changes in the soil over time. Areas that once supported healthy banana roots increasingly contained plastic waste.

“Before, when you dug into the soil, you found roots and healthy ground,” Ahmad explains. “Now you find plastic. That is when I understood this is not only about cleaning. It is about protecting the future of the village.”

For Ali Mohamed, founder of the informal Ulanga cleanup group, the journey began six years ago. At first, the goal was simple: keep the village clean. Waste was collected and often burned because there was no alternative system.

IslandPlas changed that understanding.

Through capacity building and practical collection pathways, Ali and his team began to see plastic not as useless waste, but as a material with value. Plastic now has a destination. Organic waste is increasingly reused for agriculture. Cleanup shifted from being a one-time action into a circular process.

The group’s impact has become visible across the village.

Today, households separate and store plastic because they know collection teams will return. IslandPlas distributed reusable bags to households, making separation easier and more consistent. Residents now ask when collection teams are coming rather than waiting for waste to accumulate.

The group currently collects waste from approximately 226 households every month.

For Arif Ahmed, environmental action is connected to both health and memory. Growing up, he remembers homes surrounded by banana trees and food crops. Today, many families must travel farther into fields to grow what was once available nearby.

Having studied geography at university, Arif sees plastic pollution as more than an environmental issue.

He links it to public health.

Standing water trapped around waste contributes to mosquito breeding and disease risks such as malaria. Within the group, Arif leads cleanup coordination and documents each stage of the process through photography, from collection to transportation.

His ambition is clear.

He wants to see Comoros move toward zero plastic waste.

Leadership within the movement also comes from women like Badria, current president of the Ulanga association. Before becoming involved, waste separation was not common practice in the village. Through IslandPlas training and observing approaches used in neighboring communities, she helped introduce separation systems locally.

Although she works professionally outside the association, she continues to dedicate time to organizing volunteers and strengthening the group’s activities.

For Badria, maintaining a clean village is not only environmental work. It is a form of responsibility.

Zainab, another association member, had always participated in community cleaning activities. But after understanding the IslandPlas mission, she saw the effort differently.

Cleaning alone was no longer enough.

The goal became recycling, reuse, and long-term reduction of waste entering the environment.

Together, the group is now tackling three illegal dumping sites within the village, working toward clearing each one completely.

Their progress has changed how the community responds to waste. Elders now encourage the association to expand beyond specific neighborhoods and serve the wider village. Residents separate plastic and wait for collection days. Environmental responsibility is becoming part of local routine.

For the Ulanga youth groups, the shift is not only about waste management.

It is about community ownership.

What began as informal cleanup has evolved into a locally trusted system connecting households, youth leadership, transport, recycling pathways, and environmental awareness.

And in a place where formal waste systems remain limited, that community-driven structure may be one of the strongest forms of resilience available.