TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Nearing the 2019 Eid homecoming or mudik season, the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (KLHK) urged regional administrations monitor landfills in rest areas.

Last year, the ministry recorded the hike of waste piling up rest areas. “The total waste during last year’s mudik reaches 13,500 tons from 19,000 million homecoming travelers,” said the ministry’s waste management director general, Rosa Vivien Ratnawati, on Wednesday, May 29.

“The number of homecomers this year is predicted to some 23 million people. If one person daily produced 0.7-kilogram trash, we can calculate the total garbage in this homecoming period,” Vivien said.

Therefore, the ministry demanded regional administrations monitor the waste management, “either for the recycling or waste to be disposed to the final landfill (TPA) from rest areas under the region,” she added.

Vivien made the statement during a campaign event dubbed ‘Mudik Asik Tanpa Sampah Plastik’ or literally means 'fun homecoming without plastic waste' in Rest Area KM 19 of Jakarta-Cikampek toll. She stressed that the number of waste usually increased during the mass exodus season.

Desi Pratita, the head of Rest Area KM 19 general and logistics division, seconded Vivien’s statement that waste in the area usually saw two-fold increase per day during Eid homecoming season or at 3-4 tons higher than normal days.

BISNIS