(July 1, 2020) - Environmental activists are highly concerned about the usage of disposable gallon for bottled water and all marketing campaign launched by the producers. Instead of helping government program to reduce waste, it creates new waste problem in the community.
Executive Director of Walhi Jakarta, Tubagus Soleh Ahmadi said the statement in the “Community and Media Gathering for 2020 Plastic Free Parade” webinar, held on Tuesday (6/30).
“It should not be allowed because it brings us back to the past, to the era of using disposable plastics. Therefore, we encourage the public not to use this product, in accordance with our demand in the plastic-free campaign, which is to reject disposable plastics,” said Tubagus.
According to Tubagus, he was not really surprised by the fact that producers were not willingly support to overcome environmental problems caused by their product.
“I am not surprised. Moreover, Walhi found many problems related to the producers of bottled water. They have many conflicts with the community, such as the problems of land area and water sources,” he said.
Therefore, the Plastic Free Campaign Movement will continue to call for the importance of industry or producers to be responsible for pollution that damages the environment caused by their products that are not biodegradable.
Walhi found many problems related to the producers of bottled water. (Megapolitan.Antaranews.Com/Foto/HO/ Walhi Jakarta PR).
Campaigner for Urban Greenpeace Indonesia, Muharram Atha Rasyadi, shared similar statement. He said that one of the demands of a plastic-free campaign is to encourage producers to improve their way. This is based on the Law No.18 of 2008 concerning National Waste Management, which clearly states that all parties including the government, producers and the community need to take part. However, said Atha, industry or manufacturers still take a very minimum portion.
“Because we cannot solve this problem only by the role of the community and the government, we also need producers. Moreover, during the Covid-19 pandemic there are even industries that actually promote disposable plastics for health reasons, any other else. This is a step back. When we already have a policy of prohibition, and the community is willing to move, the producers have not yet cleaned up disposable plastic,” he said.
The Executive Director of the Indonesian Movement for the Plastic Bag Diet, Tiza Mafira said the 2020 Plastic Free Parade would sue the government for breaking against the banning of certain types of disposable plastics and improving waste management in Indonesia. This movement also issued demands to companies and users of plastic packaging to start changing by not using disposable plastic.
"Because many large companies have not changed. That's what we talked about during the campaign. We will ask all people in Indonesia not to use disposable plastic," he said.
Furthermore, Tubagus said that Indonesia has long had Government Regulation No.81 of 2012 concerning Processing of Household Waste, which instructs producers not to use disposable products. In addition, there is also the Minister of Environment Regulation of Year 2019 concerning the Roadmap for Waste Reduction by Producers, despite the content is not very ambitious.
"Even though we appreciate it, we are actually quite disappointed with the Permen because it is not ambitious compared to the waste emergency crisis that we are facing right now. Supposedly, with our situation in the ecological crisis of the waste emergency, the ministerial regulation should be more ambitious. This is still quite loose reduction done by the manufacturer. The disposable packaging product should not be issued again by the manufacturers. In fact this is still happening," ended Tubagus. (E7/*)/Rls).
