TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The program launched by the Environment and Forestry Ministry that requires customers to pay for plastic bags when they shop at shopping malls, department stores, supermarkets and other retail deserves our supports.
This is a good program albeit long overdue because Indonesia has now become the world’s second biggest producer of plastic garbage after China.
Through this program, it is expected that the amount of plastic garbage will decrease by 30 percent.
With Indonesian population equal one fifth of China’s population and the amount of plastic garbage produced by Indonesia reach 187.2 million tons, the ratio of plastic garbage for one Indonesian pear year is 0.75 ton.
If we do not immediately address this issue, that amount of garbage can be used to cover the whole area of Bandung in 2020.
Plastic garbage does not only litter our lands but also our seas. In fact, the amount of plastic garbage in Indonesian waters is the highest in the world.
Indonesia has indeed vast waters. However, it cannot be justified that the people may litter the waters with garbage.
Piles of garbage will destroy biota in the waters and it takes 50-100 years for plastic garbage to decompose.
The Environment and Forestry Ministry is now trying out the program that require costumers to pay for the plastic bag, while campaigning the use of plastic made of tapioca that easily decompose.
The Environment and Forestry Ministry, the Trade Ministry, and the Indonesian Consumer Foundation (YLKI) are still determining the appropriate price of the material.
So far, the price is estimated to be around Rp. 500 per sheet.
At least 20 regions have expressed their commitment to implement the regulation of requiring the costumers to pay for the plastic bags.
In developed countries, where most of the people are aware that plastic harms the environment, the governments have imposed charges on the plastic bag used by the people.
In Hiroshima, Japan, example, the local government forces the people to select nine kinds of garbage with different garbage bags. The garbage has to be neatly selected before being collected by garbage trucks.
If a resident violates the regulation, his/her garbage will not be collected and he/she will be fined.
In Japan, taxes become an instrument to force the people to abide by the government’s regulation.
Tax money is used among others to build recycling factories that turn garbage into items with values. At supermarkets, paper, which does not harm the environment, is used for bags.
Japan is a country that manages garbage, ranging from the production, the use, and the re-use so as not to harm the environment.
Indonesia can actually follow suit.
The Bogor Institute of Agriculture and the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) have developed and made plastic made of tapioca that easily decompose when they become garbage.
Nevertheless, this innovation is not supported by the technology in order to become mass products that can be used by the public.
The government has to give its support for universities and research institutions to develop more materials that easily decompose and then forces industries to use them.
In addition, the government has to continue the campaign to use non-plastic materials to the people, especially when they shop.
We do not want our lands and our waters damaged because of plastic garbage.
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