TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The plastic and plastic recycle industries in Bogor have lodged a judicial review at the Supreme Court (MA) on the Bogor mayor’s ban on plastic bags in the city.

“Today is definitely about plastic as opposed to human rights violation. People are questioning today as to when the regulation will be applied to traditional markets, there has been no complaint from people to date,” said Elia Buntang, the head of the Bogor Environment Agency, at Artotel, Thamrin, Central Jakarta, Monday, April 29, 2019.

Elia made the statement during a press conference organized by the Indonesia Zero Waste Alliance and the Indonesia Plastic Bag Diet Initiative.

The reason behind the filing of the review was that the ban on single-use plastic bags was allegedly against the law on waste management and violating the human rights of workers who produce plastic waste.

A similar judicial review against the Bali governor’s regulation has also been filed.

Read: Clean Indonesia Movement Launched to Reduce Plastic Waste

A 2015 Science journal revealed Indonesia was the second largest contributor of plastic waste to the ocean. The research was published by Jenna Jambeck.

The executive director of the Indonesia Plastic Bag Diet Initiative, Tisa Mafira, said the statement that the ban on plastic was not a solution was a dangerous one.

“To me, waste recycle is not a solution. Globally, since plastic bags were invented in 1950 until 2015 tremendous plastic waste has polluted the environment, and that situation persists. Only nine percent was recycled and the recycle level in Indonesia does not even reach 11 percent, only 9-10 percent,” she said.

“There is no developed country that can recycle their waste 100 percent. There are many of those that instead send their plastic waste to us, and previously to China,” she added.

MOH KHORY ALFARIZI