Businesses: Paid Plastic Policy will Discontinue After Reshuffle

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta- Businesses believed that the paid plastic bag policy will not be continued following the recent cabinet reshuffle. "We believed that [the paid plastic bag policy] will not continue," said Stefanus Indrayan Jap, Deputy Secretary of the Food and Beverages Businesses Association on Friday, July 29, 2016.

Stefanus asserted that newly elected ministers will be focusing on achieving economic growth and labor absorption. Therefore, the paid plastic program will be reviewed.

Stefanus also predicted that businesses will suffer Rp 528 billion losses every year because of the paid plastic policy.

Previously, the government's plan to impose levies on plastics had raised concern among recycling companies. Recycling companies were worried that the policy will cause prices of plastic waste, which serves as raw materials for recycled plastics, to increase. "If that is the case, we will lose competitiveness," said Christine Halim, Chief of Indonesia Plastic Recycling Association on Monday, July 18, 2016.

Christine added that the policy will also affect other industry, namely the food and beverages industry. Christine explained that around 80 percent of businesses in the food and beverages industry utilize plastic packaging. As a result, the policy will inevitably increases food and beverages product prices.

ATIKA NUSYA PUTERI | PINGIT ARIA | RR ARIYANI