Lestari Circle Community Highlight: The People Behind the Impact 🌳

Lestari Circle is a peer sharing circle where NGOs and social enterprises connect, learn from each other and grow together, and this community highlight shares some of their stories. Behind every number here are people who showed up, and this is our way of saying thank you.

Five stories from the Lestari Circle community, from Malaysian beaches to a city marathon, show what steady effort adds up to.

Six years by the sea

Since 2018, Upcycled by Fuze Ecoteer and one corporate sponsor have shown what it looks like when a company stays with a cause instead of dropping by once.

The programme began in Kuala Selangor, Tioman, Cherating and Pangkor, added Perhentian and Melaka in 2019, and now spans 7 Malaysian locations. In 2023, volunteers removed 1,200 kg of waste at Mangrove Point, and in 2024 turtle conservation continued with Kasih Turtle Conservation. More than 40 tonnes of plastic have been recycled through the Pangkor recycling machine.

The standout result is plastic wood signage: waste turned into durable infrastructure at conservation sites. The work rests on five pillars: volunteering and education, habitat restoration, turtle conservation, reef support and plastic recycling.

Pallets, jobs and a stage worth standing on

For the Ecotourism section at the MATTA Fair, Maverick Events and Upcycled by Fuze Ecoteer built the staging from nothing new.

The team collected discarded wooden pallets from light industrial areas, then cleaned, repaired and rebuilt them into a centerpiece structure. All of the pallets were reused, with no new materials in the build. Over 5 days of preparation, cleaning, construction and set-up, the project gave paid work to 12 B40 community workers.

It also made a quiet point: sustainable event design does not have to look rough or temporary. With planning and craftsmanship, waste became beautiful, functional infrastructure.

From unrated to 67 points

Three years of steady work took the Kuala Lumpur Standard Chartered Marathon from unrated in 2023 to 67 out of 100 in 2025 under World Athletics' Athletics for a Better World framework.

Upcycled by Fuze Ecoteer led the waste audits, on-ground segregation and recycling coordination. The 2023 baseline audited 3,685.42 kg of waste, with about 40% diverted from landfill. In 2024, coverage grew to every water station, and 10,497 kg was audited with 48% diverted. In 2025, with a relocated start and finish, a 70-person audit team handled 10,022 kg and diverted 49.81%.

The benefits reach beyond the percentages: clearer procedures, better coordination with contractors and partners, green jobs for trained waste auditors, and more awareness among runners, spectators, vendors and volunteers. The next goals are compostable or recyclable cups, better refill systems and 70% diversion.

Closing the loop with Agoda and PPR Lembah Subang

Agoda's volunteers and the PPR Lembah Subang community have turned company plastic into useful products and real income.

In 2023, 83 volunteers made 200 mud balls and 500 recycled plastic keychains and collected 225 kg of waste from the river, supported by 5 community members employed as paid facilitators. Agoda then sponsored a recycled plastic key holder mould, so its own plastic waste becomes key holders for its Malaysian properties. So far that means 2,000+ key holders from about 200 kg of plastic, and RM16,000 in income for the community.

In 2026, 39 volunteers and 5 facilitators from PPR Lembah Subang cleaned up Pantai Batu Laut and collected 88 kg of waste, including 35 kg of food containers and 78 glass bottles. Across both events, 122 volunteers took part and 10 paid facilitator roles were created.

Small steps, big habits

Zero Waste Malaysia's Zero Waste Office Interdepartmental Challenge turned office recycling into a friendly competition across 7 departments.

The programme combined live training, consultations and daily waste tracking, and engaged 196 employees, with 49 joining the foundation workshop. Offices cut general waste by an average of 20%, and departments launched 82 unique initiatives of their own, from reuse corners and a reusable pantry to central recycling stations that replaced under-desk bins. Every participant said they were satisfied, and staff also came away with a deeper appreciation for the building's cleaning team.

The programme's motto says it best: "Sikit sikit, lama lama jadi zero waste habit." Small steps, sustained over time, become a zero-waste habit.

Thank you!

To every volunteer, facilitator, auditor, organiser and Lestari Circle member in these stories: thank you.

What these projects share is consistency, practicality and people. They turned one-off gestures into lasting habits, waste into staging, signage and key holders, and effort into income and green jobs. None of it happens without the communities who keep showing up, year after year.

Lestari Circle exists so that lessons like these travel further. We are proud to help bring this community together, and we will keep sharing its stories. If you run an NGO or social enterprise and would like to be featured in a future highlight, or join the next Circle, get in touch by sending us a DM on our Instagram page @carbongpt