Plastic Waste - an Indonesian Perspective

Author: Atika (Junior Alumni)

In Indonesia, one of the biggest environmental problems is caused by plastic waste. Looking to this year’s virtual conference theme “The Transformation To A Sustainable Planet” which divided into subtopics representing 4 different ecosystems: low land, high land, urban, and seashore, the plastic waste problem could easily found and affect in all areas.

Even though in 2019 the government of seven big cities has banned single-use plastic in all modern markets and followed by the capital, Jakarta, in June 2020 but still - not all people are aware of this issue. Gratefully the youth know their power. This situation encourages them to raise awareness about plastic waste danger.

Some movements have been made by students in various places. Those who live in big cities do online campaigns and free plastic parade in car free day area every weekend, while students who live near the seashore made a beach cleanup day and share it throughout social media. It was quite effective to spread awareness.

My friends and I are struggling with this issue too. After we found out there are a lot of kids in our neighborhood, we came up to bring the plastic issue through a storybook as it become easier to understand.

Starting an environmental project may not as hard as it sounds. We might have so many environmental problems around that we are trying to solve, and it is kind of confusing to decide where should we start. But hey, why don’t we take a look at our nearest surroundings before it gets into a big thing. Such as go to our trash bin, see what kind of waste we produce the most, and do a simple step: reduce it.