Yesterday was World Environment Day and this year the event featured the theme “Beat Plastic Pollution”. Like many other countries in the world, Indonesia has a serious problem when it comes to plastic waste in general but plastic bags in particular. According to the government’s own data, Indonesians use approximately 9.8 BILLION plastic bags per year and almost 95% of them end up in the garbage.
To mark World Environment Day, yesterday the Ministry of the Environment and Forestry (KLHK), issued a declaration to reduce the country’s plastic waste in cooperation with Muhammadiyah and Nahdatul Ulama (NU), two of Indonesia’s largest and most influential Islamic organizations.
The declaration was signed by representatives of the Muhammadiyah central executive board and NU’s executive board and witnessed by KLHK’s director general on hazardous waste management Rosa Vivien Ratnawati.
Vivien said the that plastic waste is estimated to account for about 14% of the country’s total waste production, which works out to about 24,500 tons per day or 8.96 million tons per year. She also said the amount of plastic bag waste has increased significantly in the last 10 years.
With millions of members each, KLHK said it hoped that Muhammadiyah and NU’s involvement could help lead to changes in societal attitudes that could alleviate this trash timebomb.
Fitria Ariayani, who is the director of NU’s Trash Bank program, said that NU wanted its members to spread the word that reducing waste and protecting the environment was a religious obligation.
“Essentially we want to invite people to realize that this commitment [to protecting the environment] is also something that is Islamic. NU itself has already put a lot of effort into reducing plastic waste, such as recycling or waste banks that including socialization about reducing plastic use,” Fitria said as quoted by Media Indonesia.
To help reduce plastic bag usage, both organizations said in the declaration that they would conduct reusable bag programs to get their members used to them.
The Indonesian government has had difficulty stemming the use of plastic bags at their source. In 2016, Indonesian Retail Enterprises Association (Aprindo) issued a regulation from KLHK forcing stores to charge their customers IDR200 (US$0.01) per plastic bag, but the regulation only lasted a few months before being rescinded due to complaints.
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