May 2025: 2 million kilograms of waste – the equivalent of 60 million plastic bottles. Lined up end to end, it makes a line from Munich to Cambodia and back again.

It all began in 2018, with a vision: clean rivers, waters and oceans. The incredible pollution of the oceans prompted the founding team to take action themselves. It quickly becomes clear that rivers are the problem. Because 80% of waste is washed into the oceans by rivers. In order to close the waste cycle, we need to start there and prevent the waste from ending up in the oceans in the first place.

2020 marks the first major milestone: the first kilogram of waste is recovered at Hron in Slovakia. This is followed by the deployment of the company’s first own waste collection boat – which was specially developed for the missions together with a German boat builder. Since then, the fleet has grown and with it the impact: stationary projects followed in Cambodia (Mekong), Thailand (Chao Phraya) and, since March 2025, in Albania (Drin). Supplemented by local teams on site and specially installed zero-waste centers, everwave creates a lasting impact.

Currently, the use of AI is helping the projects to better detect and analyze waste: drones and other aircraft are being used to find and analyze waste in the waters and to understand how it spreads.

A lot has been achieved from the first kilograms of waste to the 2 million. But the journey is far from over! everwave continues to work in line with its vision: for cleaner rivers and less waste.