Countries Engage War on Plastic Waste

ANTARA FOTO/AMPELSA

Traditional fishermen start their daily activities on a tourist beach contaminated with plastic and wood waste in Kampung Jawa village, Banda Aceh, on Monday (25/6/2018). Lack of awareness and public attention about the environment result in plastic waste piling in several areas.

JAKARTA, KOMPAS – Despite numerous major hurdles, many countries, including Indonesia, are waging a war on plastic waste.

The Ocean Conservancy’s 2015 report showed that more than 8 million tons of plastic waste are disposed in the world’s oceans every year. The Washington, US-based agency said that half of the waste originated from five countries, namely China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.

The effect is highly adverse. The agency said that more than 700 marine species had been exposed to plastic waste and fatalities. Last week, a beached whale was found dying in Songkhla, Thailand. It was later found that its stomach contained plastic waste and other materials that weighed 8 kilograms.

Apart from killing marine life, plastic waste also clogs water drains and may trigger floods in major cities, such as Mumbai and Manila.

KOMPAS/RIZA FATHONI

Sanitation officers pick up plastic garbage at Krukut River in Penjaringan, Jakarta, on Friday (4/5/2018). Sustainable Waste Indonesia’s latest research shows that Indonesia produces more than 45.3 million tons of waste per year. Of this amount, about 1.3 million tons is plastic. This plastic waste usually ends up in the environment, especially rivers and seas, because of its inability to decompose.

On Christmas Island on the Indian Ocean, plastic waste is piling up on its white sandy beaches and is killing marine life. Turtles that lay their eggs on the island all year round are prone to the waste’s adverse effects.

Plastic waste can clog up their digestive system or obstruct them from diving deep to find food.

“Plastic bags look similar to jellyfish underwater. Jellyfishes are turtles’ favorite food,” said animal ecology lecturer Kathy Townsend from the Sunshine Coast University in Hervey Bay, Brisbane.

In Vietnam, things are just as bad. Fisherman Nguyen Thi Phuong from Thanh Hoa province said that tree branches and roots were often covered by plastic waste. He said that he could find discarded sandals, biscuit wrappers, plastic bags, toothpaste tubes, juice boxes, fishing nets, furniture and clothes on a 1-km stretch of beach.

KOMPAS/BAHANA PATRIA GUPTA

A worker pushes a cart containing plastic bottles that were sorted from the garbage left in the Jambangan garbage dump on World Environment Day in Surabaya, East Java, on Tuesday (5/6/2018). The Surabaya administration continues its efforts to tackle waste plastic management by offering public buses that take plastic bottles as payment instead of cash.

“It is hard for us fishermen to find shrimp and fishes here,” said Vu Quoc Viet, another fisherman.

Mitigation effort

Due to this threatening situation, a number of parties realized that improvements were urgently needed.

“We are using too much plastic. Reducing the use of plastic, especially single-use plastic bags, is the first and most significant move we can take,” Thai marine biologist Thon Thamrongnawasawat said.

Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha has pushed for improvements in waste management as a national priority.

“We have a goal to reduce plastic waste through changes in policy and practice, including in production, consumption and in final waste management,” said Wijarn Simachaya from Thailand’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.

REUTERS/DARREN STAPLES

Drinking straws protrude from a glass in a illustration picture in Loughborough, Britain April 19, 2018.

Indonesia is still struggling to reduce its use of plastic, especially as its plastic waste continues to burden its land and marine environments. Producers and consumers are involved in reducing waste to relieve the burden of landfills.

On the national level, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has pushed for plastic waste reduction through Presidential Regulation (Perpres) No. 97/2017 on the national policy and strategy on household and similar waste management. Regions will have to issue their own plastic management regulations by this October, or one year after President Jokowi signed the Perpres.

The Perpres includes a projected amount of plastic waste as well as reduction and management targets for up to 2025. In 2025, plastic waste projection nationwide is 70.8 million tons, the reduction target is 30 percent, or 20.9 million tons, and waste management is expected to tackle 49.9 million tons of plastic.

To achieve this target, regional administrations are required to come up with their own regional policy and strategy.

KOMPAS/MUKHAMAD KURNIAWAN

Workers of the Pemulung Berdaya Cooperative sort used plastic bottles in Kademangan Village, Setu district, South Tangerang City, Banten, on Wednesday (4/4/2018). The cooperative has the capacity to process 3-4 tons of used plastic bottles into plastic ores per day. Garbage handling has become a serious problem along with the increasing volume of garbage in Indonesia.

“Regions being asked to come up with their own waste management strategy is something new,” Novrizal Thahar, the waste management director of the Environment and Forestry Ministry, said on Friday (29/6/2018).

The strategy calculates local waste production, regional recycling management capability, landfill capacity and reduction targets. Regions also need to come up with programs to tackle unmanageable waste.

As of now, limits and bans on single-use plastic bags are in place in Banjarmasin, Balikpapan, Padang and Badung in Bali. Bans in the cities are imposed through mayoral regulation. The bans are already in place in major retailers and are being introduced to traditional markets.

Balikpapan will start its full ban on plastic bags in modern retailers on July 3. Balikpapan environment agency head Suryanto said that penalties for violating the regulation include verbal warnings, written warnings, temporary operational bans and business license revocations.

(AFP/REUTERS/ICH/JOS)