Plastic Waste in Indonesia
Indonesia is a country in Southeast Asia​. Indonesia is the largest archipelago in the world. It consists of five major islands and about 30 smaller groups of islands. Currently, Indonesia is facing an environmental problem. Indonesia has some of the most biodiverse and important coral reef systems in the world. But, over the past few decades, those habitats have faced a number of challenges, including plastic pollution.
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A recent study found Indonesia to be the second largest contributor to plastic pollution after China. According to the World Bank, Indonesia generates approximately 7.8 million tons of plastic waste annually. Out of that, 4.9 million tons of plastic waste is mismanaged, it is either uncollected, disposed of in open dumpsites or leaked from improperly managed landfills. The wastes are mismanaged because there are limited collection services and access to disposal infrastructure which hinders improvement in waste handling.
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According to a study done by Ministry of Environment and Forestry of Republic of Indonesia, the landfill and the non-landfill waste pickers supply 1 million tonnes of plastic waste to recyclers. Due to losses such as mismanagement and insufficient sorting, only two thirds of that amount is recycled. This puts the overall nationwide recycling rate of plastic at 10%. According to a study done by Ministry of Environment and Forestry of Republic of Indonesia, most of the uncollected waste which is 59% is openly burned by households. Another 33% is dumped into the environment on land, while 8% goes directly into the water. Waste from dumpsites, dumping on land, and direct dumping into water accounts for the plastic leakage into lakes, rivers, and the ocean.
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The plastic leakage into lakes, rivers, and the ocean is what causes plastic pollution. If this keeps on happening, the environment will be the victim. In the ocean, plastics are often consumed by marine animals. Plastics in the ocean will affect many aspects of the marine fish and marine food chain. The plastics can have a toxic effect on fish and other aquatic life. Plastics can also enter the human body through ingestion and inhalation where they may be taken up in various organs and might affect health. In laboratory tests, plastics have been shown to cause damage to human cells, including both allergic reactions and cell death.
How to Stop Plastic Pollution in Indonesia
One of the ways to stop plastic pollution is to manage plastic waste. The most important step in managing plastic waste is to collect the plastic waste. If the plastic waste are not collected, nothing can really be done to the waste. Once the plastic waste are collected, we can decide what we want to do with it. In order to reduce plastic pollution, we need to increase the collection rate of plastic waste. If the collection rate increases, we can manage the plastic waste properly.
Other than the recycling itself, awareness also needs to be raised towards the recycled products. The market need to be educated about the recycled products. People might think that recycled products are dirty and much worse in quality compared to products made with virgin plastic. If the market are not aware of recycled products, there will be no market demand. With few market demand, all recycling process that have been done will be for nothing because nobody will buy the product.