Plastic Waste in Jakarta Amounts to 300mn Pieces Annually
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4 January 2019 17:12 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Head of Waste Management Unit of the Jakarta Environmental Agency, Rahmawati, said the agency had conducted studies to draft a gubernatorial decree on the restriction on the plastic bags. The results of the studies revealed that plastic waste should be reduced.
One of the efforts, Rahmawati said, was by limiting plastic bags used for shopping. “Plastic is hard to decay, not to mention that in large numbers,” Rahmawati told Tempo, Thursday, January 3.
According to the data, the average waste in Jakarta amounted to 2.5 million tons per year, and a total of 357,000 tons of them were plastic. The capital contributed 1,900 to 2,400 tons of plastic waste per annum or equal to 240 to 300 million plastic bags.
Read: Jakarta Environmental Agency on Plastic Ban: Food Wrap is Allowed
Rahmawati explained the agency had run a door-to-door survey on the perception of Jakartans in light of the restriction on plastic bags. Most respondents were housewives. "Almost 80 percent [of respondents] agreed to a limit on the use of disposable plastic bags and are willing to bring their own [reusable] bags," she noted.
Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan, meanwhile, deemed the draft decree still required further correction allowing for its importance. He opined the regulation should include a rule on the substitution of plastic bags in the society.
M YUSUF MANURUNG
