TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The environmental activists invite the people and mosques management to reduce the use of plastic bags for Qurban meat distribution during the Eid al-Adha celebration this year. One of the replacements for plastic is bamboo packaging known as besek.

“Other alternatives are woven teak leaves packaging, woven pandan leaves packaging, or bring your own container,” said Alain Bunjamin, founder of Studio Dapur Nusantara in Bandung, Saturday, June 25.

He viewed that the systemic solution of plastic waste comes from mosque management during the Qurban meat distribution.

Meanwhile, Studio Dapur along with Pahlawan Bencana (disaster hero), Karaosan, and Gerakan Indonesia Diet Kantong Plastik (Indonesian movement of plastic bag diet) asked the people to purchase bamboo besek jointly. “The 15 x 15-centimeter besek can contain 1-1.5 kg of meat,” said Alain.

The movement to use bamboo packaging or besek would also add to the income of bamboo crafters in rural areas while keeping bamboo forests from being misused.

They raise the campaign of besek joint donation at Rp45,000 per person through social media and kitabisa.com site. They are targeting the donation to be able to purchase 7,500 to 10,000 bamboo packaging from craftsmen in Tasikmalaya and Magelang.

The besek would be distributed for free to various mosques in Bandung, Jakarta, Magelang, Solo, and Yogyakarta. "In hope that they could prepare funds and ways to replace the use of plastic bags next year," Alain added.

In three years, Alain said that the besek joint donation movement has at least reduced the use of 40,000 plastic packagings; with the calculation of 150 plastic bags for beef per cow and 25 plastic bags for goat meat per one goat.

Based on his observation on social media and the news on mass media, the movement to reduce the use of plastic bags has spread to many mosques. Other communities also raise similar campaigns. They hope that many more people would care to reduce single-use plastic waste.

Anwar Siswadi (Contributor)

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