In Balikpapan, a city of 700,000 on the coast of East Kalimantan, the traditional waste bank is getting a digital upgrade. Ciro Waste, a local startup founded in 2022, is trying to thread a needle, connecting households with spare cardboard to the industrial buyers who want it, and convincing everyone in between to use an app. It is a quiet, practical bet on digitizing one of the least glamorous but most tangible parts of the circular economy, the daily sorting of household trash.
The bet on a digital middleman
Ciro Waste operates a marketplace, but its product is mostly software wrapped around a very physical problem. Its mobile app, Ciroes, lets users find nearby collection points, schedule pickups for sorted waste, and earn cash or points for their plastic bottles and old newspapers [Google Play]. For waste banks, the platform offers a digital ledger, replacing handwritten notebooks with transaction records and basic analytics [SPECTA Journal of Technology]. The company also provides operational services for businesses and institutions, handling the collection, sorting, and logistics of recyclables [cirowaste.com]. The model is straightforward, a digital layer meant to bring pricing transparency and reliability to a system that often runs on informal agreements and cash.
Why the timing works in East Kalimantan
This is not a bet that would work everywhere, but in Indonesia, and specifically in Balikpapan, the conditions are aligning. The city and provincial governments have active waste reduction and circular economy policies, creating a regulatory tailwind for formalized recycling networks. Ciro Waste has already signed a memorandum of understanding with the Balikpapan Tengah sub-district government [cirowaste.com]. Furthermore, the startup has leveraged corporate social responsibility (CSR) partnerships, like one with telecom giant Telkomsel, to fund environmental education and mangrove planting programs in local schools [Prokal]. These partnerships provide both funding and community credibility, embedding the service into the local social fabric rather than presenting it as an external tech solution.
Traction and the path to scale
The company reports it has secured funding across four rounds, including grants and angel investment [Institut Teknologi Kalimantan]. While the exact figures are not public, the capital has allowed for a measured expansion of services. A key move was the February 2023 launch of hazardous waste (B3) management in collaboration with PT BES, a licensed manager in East Kalimantan [Institut Teknologi Kalimantan]. This expands the addressable market from household recyclables to include regulated industrial waste streams.
The core traction, however, is in the network. The app is available on both iOS and Android, and the model appears to be gaining adoption. The company's focus on community integration is evident in its operations, led by COO and co-founder Dianisa Ester [LinkedIn, 2026].
| Service | Target Customer | Value Proposition |
|---|---|---|
| Ciroes App | Households & Individuals | Cash/points for sorted waste, convenient drop-off/pickup |
| Digital Platform | Waste Banks (Bank Sampah) | Transaction recording, waste tracking, member management |
| B2B Collection | Offices, Schools, Events | Scheduled waste pickup, segregated waste programs, ESG reporting |
| Hazardous Waste Mgmt | Industrial Clients | Compliant B3 waste handling via partner PT BES |
The risks of operating in the margins
For all its local traction, Ciro Waste operates in a sector defined by thin margins and complex logistics. The academic case study on the company notes it has yet to establish a documented, formal enterprise risk management framework [SPECTA Journal of Technology]. In a business dealing with fluctuating commodity prices, transportation costs, and regulatory compliance for hazardous materials, that is a notable gap. The reliance on grant and angel funding, while enabling bootstrapped growth, may also limit the capital available for the heavy logistics investment or aggressive geographic expansion needed to achieve real scale. The model works because it is deeply local, but that same locality could be its ceiling.
The math, on its face, is about aggregation. If a household earns the equivalent of $0.50 for a kilogram of sorted PET plastic, and Ciro Waste can aggregate ten tons of it from its network, the economics shift from a community service to a commercial feedstock operation. The company's success hinges on becoming the lowest-cost, most reliable aggregator in its region, consistently delivering quality bales to recycling plants. The incumbent it must beat is not another tech startup, but the entrenched informal network of individual collectors and brokers. Ciro Waste wins if its digital efficiency and reporting transparency provide enough value to convince both households and factories that its middleman fee is worth paying.
Sources
- [Google Play] Ciroes - Aplikasi di Google Play | https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cirowaste.ciroapp&hl=en_US
- [SPECTA Journal of Technology] Implementation of Enterprise Risk Management: A Case Study of Cirowaste Startup | https://journal.itk.ac.id/index.php/sjt/article/view/8481391
- [cirowaste.com] Ciro Waste | Circular Economy Marketplace untuk Sampah Daur Ulang Indonesia | https://cirowaste.com/
- [Institut Teknologi Kalimantan] Implementation of Enterprise Risk Management: A Case Study of Cirowaste Startup | https://journal.itk.ac.id/index.php/sjt/article/view/8481391
- [Prokal] Ciro Waste collaboration with Telkomsel CSR | https://kaltim.prokal.co/
- [LinkedIn, 2026] Dianisa Ester - CIRO WASTE | https://www.linkedin.com/in/dianisa-ester-7594ba18b/