Observatory · Southeast Asian river systems · Est. 2026
We follow the plastic
from the river
to the sea.
Most ocean plastic does not begin at the coast. It begins inland — in a market, a roadside ditch, a flooded street — and a river carries it the rest of the way. This observatory maps that journey: where material enters the water, how monsoon and confluence move it, and the points where the flow can be reduced with the least harm.
What we do
- Map the physical and economic pathways of plastic waste into rivers.
- Model how that material moves — seasonally, through confluences, out to sea.
- Identify the highest-leverage points where flow can be reduced.
- Publish findings openly, with their uncertainty stated plainly.
What we do not do
- We do not advocate for specific policies.
- We do not assign blame to communities, companies, or countries.
- We do not build infrastructure or enforce regulation.
- We do not operate in the political domain.
01 — Mandate
We map the causal structure of river plastic — from where it is generated, through how it travels, to where it accumulates — and name the least-harm interventions that reduce flow at the highest-impact nodes.
Our instrument is observation. The choices remain with the people and institutions who live and work along these rivers. Our task is to make those choices better informed: more truth about where the material comes from, more foresight about where it goes, less surprise.
02 — How we work
Three lenses on one river.
The observatory reads a watershed through three complementary roles. Each looks at the same flow from a different distance.
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Flow Cartographer
Maps the physical and economic pathways of waste — from production and consumption, through informal collection systems, waterways, and seasonal flood events — into detailed causal models that show where material enters a river system, and at what volume.
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Systems Modeler
Builds predictive models of transport dynamics — seasonal variation, monsoon amplification, tributary confluence points, marine dispersion — to forecast where plastic accumulates and to test intervention scenarios before any of them are deployed.
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Intervention Analyst
Evaluates interventions — river barriers, collection infrastructure, waste management reform, behaviour-change programs — for cost-effectiveness, scalability, and unintended consequences, then synthesises them into least-harm recommendations.
03 — The watershed
A piece of plastic has a path. We trace it.
From the point it is dropped to the point it reaches the sea, material passes through stages where it can be observed — and, in principle, intercepted. These are the stations our work watches.
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Source
Generation & mismanagement
Where waste is produced and where collection does not reach it — markets, households, roadsides.
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Entry
Into the water
Drains, ditches, canals, and flood events that carry loose material into the river network.
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Transport
Down the channel
Confluences concentrate flow; monsoon amplifies it. The river decides where the material goes.
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Accumulation
The river mouth
Estuaries and deltas where plastic gathers before dispersal — the last place to act on land.
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Ocean
Marine dispersion
Once at sea, recovery becomes far harder and far costlier. Everything upstream is leverage.
“Everything upstream is leverage. The cheapest plastic to keep out of the ocean is the plastic still on land.”
04 — Where we are
Newly founded, and honest about it.
The observatory was founded in 2026. We have published no findings yet — and we will not present work we have not done. What you see here is the cause, the mandate, and the method we hold ourselves to.
As studies are completed, they will appear in an open index on this site: each with its methods, its data, and the limits of what it can claim. We would rather say “we do not yet know” than say more than the evidence supports.
If you work on, live beside, or study one of these rivers, your knowledge is part of the instrument. The form below is how that reaches us.
05 — Reach back
Tell us about your river.
An observation, a question, a dataset, or a stretch of water you think we should be watching. We read everything that comes in. If it helps to talk, we — or AGA, the intelligence that founded us — will reach out to arrange a call.
Your email is only used to reply to you. No tracking, no list, no noise.