About two years ago, I joined my first anti-plastic march in the streets of Indonesia’s capital city, Jakarta. The march was especially important because it was led by the Indonesian Minister of Maritime of Fisheries, Susi Pudjiastuti. In front of the marching crowd stood the face of the protest: a gigantic four-meter tall angler fish replica made of plastic waste from the Indonesian seas that weighed about 500 kilograms.
Pudjiastuti stated that Indonesia is the second biggest contributor to plastic waste in the ocean and that it has a very harmful impact on our health.
“We have been consuming plastic through the fish we eat. Do we want that? No!” Pudjiastuti shouted to the crowd.
That was the first time I realized how prevalent the plastic waste problem is in Indonesia.
In the protest, Jakartans urged the government to follow Bali’s footsteps and ban single-use plastic. Something that astounded me the most was that many of the protesters still bought single-use plastic products as they were marching, such as iced tea packaged in a plastic bag with a plastic straw inside it from nearby street vendors. Ironically, the anti-plastic protest left even more plastic waste lying on the streets. This shows that even citizens who are aware of the plastic waste situation in Indonesia still find it difficult to change their plastic consumption habits.
But Indonesia’s plastic waste does not all come from Indonesia.
Plastic Waste Imports
The same week I joined the march, I followed a senior photojournalist as he documented a small-scale protest in front of the U.S. embassy. I quickly learned that Indonesia’s plastic waste did not come from Indonesians alone, but from other western countries such as the United States.
This protest is a glimpse of what is happening globally regarding plastic waste imports. In 2017, China, the biggest plastic waste importer in the world, banned plastic waste imports. Consequently, plastic waste from the U.S., Canada, Australia and Japan is transported to five Southeast Asian countries including Indonesia. In 2018, the United States sent the equivalent of 68,000 shipping containers of plastic to developing countries who already could not manage 70 percent of their own plastic waste.
To many developed countries, exporting waste to poorer countries who are not even equipped to manage their own waste is much cheaper than processing the waste themselves. Often, the plastic waste dumped in poorer countries has low value and is difficult to recycle. This means that the problem with plastic waste is not just regional, but global.
As of 2020, Indonesia announced that, unlike China, it will not completely ban imported waste. According to the decree released by the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI), Indonesia will accept, at most, two percent of the total scrap paper and plastic that are exported by foreign countries.
Indonesia’s Plastic Statistics
Although plastic waste imports to Indonesia grew significantly in 2018, more than 95 percent of plastic pollution comes from Indonesia itself. Indonesia alone can generate an average of 6.8 million tons of plastic waste annually, a number that is increasing by 5 percent every year. Statistics show that 70 percent of Indonesia’s plastic waste, or about 4.8 million tons per year, was mismanaged in various ways. About 48 percent was burned, 13 percent was dumped on land and the remaining 9 percent leaked into waterways and the ocean.
Despite major efforts from the government and society as a whole, plastic waste that leaks into the country’s waters is projected to grow by 30 percent between 2017 and 2025. This means that Indonesia’s plastic waste that is discarded in the ocean will reach 780,000 tons by 2025.
One of the biggest plastic waste contributors is plastic bags. According to Indonesian Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya, about 9.8 billion plastic bags are used in Indonesia annually, and 95 percent of these end up as waste. Furthermore, the ministry’s waste management directorate estimates that Indonesians use 93 million plastic straws everyday.
The most recyclable plastic product, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles, has higher value for recycling companies and causes less pollution. However, about 75 percent of plastic waste that leaks into the environment are the more flexible plastic products such as plastic bags, potato chips packaging and plastic wrappers. These types of plastic products cannot be recycled.
Mismanaged plastic waste pollutes ecosystems and harms tourism, fisheries and our health. Incineration of plastic waste releases harmful substances to the air. Moreover, microplastics are also found inside the fish we consume. In Makassar, about 55 percent of the fish sampled contains plastic debris. As the second largest producer of fish, Indonesia’s fisheries will be at stake if it does not tackle the plastic waste problem.
Plastic, Pandemic, and Policy
A year before the pandemic, Bali initiated the anti-plastic movement in Indonesia by releasing a regulation that bans single-use plastic. In the same year, the Central Java government also issued a regulation that bans plastic bags in minimarkets and supermarkets. Despite this regulation, some supermarkets still provide plastic bags but require customers to pay a small fee.
In 2020, Jakarta followed suit and banned single-use plastic in the marketplace and urged vendors to use other packaging materials such as cloth. However, the regulation caused some backlash and stirred confusion among citizens because plastic bags were still openly used in traditional markets. A lot of the vendors argued that they didn’t have any other alternatives since they sell fresh perishable goods like fish and poultry.
The ban on single-use plastic gets even more complicated during the pandemic. For the sake of hygiene, disposable take-away containers are in high demand. Unfortunately, most of them are made out of plastic.
Nuniek Ariani, an owner of a beach resort in Jepara, Central Java, said that before the pandemic, restaurants and hotels were reducing plastic waste by using reusable straws. However, when the pandemic hit, using disposable plastic materials became inevitable for the sake of hygiene. Consequently, the demand for plastic in various forms rose dramatically.
With more people staying at home, online shopping became the preferred method of buying goods. According to a study by the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), online shopping activities rose from one to five times a month to ten times during the COVID-19 stay-at-home orders. Because delivery packages need plastic packaging and bubble wrap, the demand for plastic increased significantly.
Root Problems
According to the National Plastic Action Partnership (NPAP) Indonesia 2020 report, there are three interconnected root causes to Indonesia’s plastic problem:
- Underdeveloped and underfunded solid waste-management systems with low waste-collection rates. Waste is not separated into recyclables and non-recyclables, which makes it even more difficult to recycle waste.
- Individuals and industries use too much unnecessary plastic in packaging.
- Many types of plastic waste have low or no after-use value compared to other recyclable materials like aluminum cans.
Complex Issue, Comprehensive Solution
The plastic waste problem in Indonesia is multifaceted and affects the well-being and economy of the country. Because of this, solutions should pay attention to the different spheres that affect and are affected by plastic waste. I propose that change should be implemented at the international and individual levels.
International Level: Banning Plastic Waste Imports
With Indonesia still grappling with managing its own plastic waste, it would be unthinkable to process plastic waste from other countries—more so if the imported plastic waste also has low value and is difficult to recycle.
Perhaps Indonesia can follow China’s footsteps in banning plastic waste imports. Instead of limiting the amount of imported plastic waste, Indonesia should take a firmer stance against waste imports until it could manage its own plastic waste efficiently.
This approach has both positive and negative impacts. When China, the world’s largest plastic waste importer, banned foreign plastic waste, plastic waste exporters like the U.S. and Australia scrambled to find ways to dump their waste. Some recycling companies in these countries even had to curtail or halt their recycling programs entirely. This means that more plastic waste is not being recycled because recycling is expensive and does not generate enough revenue. Moreover, other countries that are still accepting foreign plastic waste have the burden of processing the bulk of the world’s plastic waste.
However, if developing countries take a firm stance in not accepting foreign plastic waste, they may push major plastic waste producers to rethink their throwaway culture and develop more just and sustainable ways to manage plastic waste. Although banning importation of plastic waste may not be a key solution (remember, most of Indonesia’s plastic waste comes from within the country), it can lessen Indonesia’s burden in processing their own waste. Moreover, processing waste is much more difficult and expensive than the revenue generated from receiving and recycling the waste.
National Level
Responding to the complaints regarding the single-use plastic ban, the government should enforce the regulation in the marketplace while providing an alternative for sellers that rely on plastic for packaging. For example, the government could encourage vendors who sell fresh fish and poultry to opt for biodegradable packaging such as banana leaves and bamboo weave-baskets (besek). Incentivizing affordable and sustainable alternatives instead of leaving it up to the vendors could help people follow the law.
Since Indonesia still has a very underfunded and underdeveloped waste management system, the government should start making waste management a priority when allocating their budget. Indonesia has not invested much in waste management as there are competing demands from various sectors such as road construction, education, healthcare and irrigation infrastructure. The current Indonesian President, Joko Widodo, focused a lot on toll road construction projects during his administration to increase connectivity among major cities in Indonesia. Since most people are still working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic, building toll roads may not be as urgent. Therefore, I am proposing if some of the construction budget could be allocated to develop Indonesia’s waste management system.
This budget can be used to fund recycling plants and waste collection companies. The rationale for this is that uncontrolled waste greatly affects people’s health and the national economy. There are two main ways that plastic can affect the fishery industry. First, macroplastics floating in the ocean can cause entanglement which led to mortality for the marine animals. Second, microplastics in the ocean can have negative impacts on health, fertility and survival for various fish species. With plastic waste floating in Indonesian seas, the quality and quantity of fish and other marine animals will continue to decrease. If mismanaged waste continues to leak into waterways and seas, Indonesia’s fishery industry, which is one of its biggest commodities, will collapse.
Besides funding and developing the waste management system, the government should create a curriculum or run campaigns that educate the public about how to properly dispose of their waste. Again, strict enforcement from the government and cooperation from the public should go hand in hand so that the waste management system can function effectively.
A gender perspective is also vital when looking at waste management solutions. In Indonesia, women play a critical role in making household purchasing decisions and control domestic waste disposal. More research is needed in this area to uncover more effective society-wide solutions for waste management in Indonesia.
A geographic aspect that makes plastic waste management in Indonesia ineffective is that 80-90 percent of recycling plants are centralized in the island of Java, with a few located in Northern Sumatra. This makes recycling plastic difficult to access for other regions in Indonesia. Because of this, dispersing recycling plants to key cities in various parts of Indonesia could be a strategic start for waste management.
Individual Level
At an individual level, the best advice would be to reduce the amount of plastic we use as much as possible. We can do this by carrying our own utensils and reusable water bottles.
However, because it is unrealistic to not use plastic at all, we can recycle our own plastic waste into eco bricks—to learn how, read my recent article. Eco bricks can be used to build gardens and household furniture.
If you live in the island of Java, you can check out Waste4Change, a Bekasi-based private waste management company that focuses on managing waste sustainably. They can help process waste from households and companies. This company focuses on organizing waste by sorting it into organic and inorganic waste. Organic waste will be turned into compost while they sort the inorganic waste into different categories like plastics, glass and aluminum. Plastics will further be sorted according to their types such as PET, HDPE and many others. Inorganic waste will be pressed using a hydraulic machine, and recyclable inorganic waste will be distributed to their recycling agent partners.
Unfortunately, waste residue will still be discarded to landfills. To offset this problem, Waste4Change introduced a new program called Zero Waste to Landfill where clients have to pay extra so that the waste residue can be processed with refuse-derived fuel technology (RDF) to be turned into cement material.
Additionally, you can raise awareness about the urgency of reducing plastic waste in Indonesia through social media or by joining marches. There are a number of emerging Instagram hashtags that encourage people to pick up trash, especially plastic waste in the beach such as #trashtag, #take3forthesea and #2minutebeachclean. There are also various organizations that are working to advocate for change in regards to plastic waste.
If you live in Indonesia, you can check out resources and ways to get involved in the anti-plastic movement from these organizations:
- Gerakan Indonesia Diet Kantong Plastik (Plastic Bag Diet Movement Indonesia)
- Greenpeace
- Wahana Lingkungan Hidup (The Indonesian Forum for the Environment)
- Bye Bye Plastic Bags
- Avani
- EcoBali Recycling
A Call for Action
The plastic waste issue in Indonesia is complex. Before Indonesia can start thinking about advanced waste management technology, Indonesia should start with changing its policies and attitude to reduce plastic waste.
As I was researching this issue, I stumbled upon a video about eco-economy which has a good illustration about the two ways people can respond to environmental issues:
You are given two responses to environmental problems. The first response would solve the problem but comes with a great cost and requires change of habit. The second response does not require you to change, is much more cost-efficient, but reduces your life expectancy and causes natural disasters to happen more frequently.
Which one would you choose?
The easy way is to choose the second response, but may we choose the first option and make a change for a more sustainable future.
