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Jakarta plans to limit use of plastic bags
Jakarta as the capital city has often set the benchmark for progressive policies that tackle various issues, but in terms of single-use plastic bags, it has been left behind by a neighboring city
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span>Jakarta as the capital city has often set the benchmark for progressive policies that tackle various issues, but in terms of single-use plastic bags, it has been left behind by a neighboring city.
The West Java city of Bogor issued in July Mayoral Decree No. 61/2018 on the reduction of plastic bag use, months before Jakarta drafted a gubernatorial decree to ban the use of single-use plastic bags and enforce the use of reusable shopping bags.
Bogor was the fourth municipality in the country to prohibit modern markets from providing their customers with plastic bags, following in the footsteps of Banjarmasin in South Kalimantan, Balikpapan in East Kalimantan and Bandung in West Java. The policy in Bogor will officially be enforced in December after months of familiarizing residents with it.
Jakarta Environment Agency head Isnawa Adji told The Jakarta Post on Thursday that the planned decree was a necessary step to reduce the amount of plastic waste in the city.
According to a recent study conducted by the environment agency, Jakarta sends about 357,000 tons of plastic waste to landfills per year, almost 50 percent of which ends up in the Bantar Gebang landfill.
Moreover, Isnawa said, the policy would also help the city to achieve its target of reducing the amount of waste thrown into landfills by 30 percent by 2025. Currently, Jakarta produces around 7,000 tons of waste every day.
However, according to Isnawa, the city would still allow plastic bags to be used for seafood, poultry and meat, as it had yet to find a better alternative.
He expressed hope that the draft would be completed as soon as possible and issued by the end of this year.
The administration planned to give business players, including merchants in traditional markets, and consumers ample time to adapt to the regulation and find sustainable, ecofriendly alternatives.
“If all goes well, we would start implementing the regulation by mid-2019,” he said after a discussion with business players on finding alternative solutions to plastic bags.
Efforts to reduce dependence on single-use plastic bags were previously made by the Environment and Forestry Ministry, which required customers in 27 cities to pay Rp 200 (1 US cent) per plastic bag when shopping at modern retailers.
The trial period for the campaign, which lasted three months, reportedly reduced the use of plastic bags by 55 percent nationwide.
Then-governor Basuki Tjahaja “Ahok” Purnama, however, decided to scrap the policy due to protests from retailers.
There have been no policies that have made a real impact on reducing the use of plastic bags ever since, even though the city has Regional Regulation No. 3/2013 on waste management, which encourages residents to reduce, reuse and recycle.
Separately, Association of Indonesian Retailers (Aprindo) deputy chairman Tutum Rahanta said the association lauded the administration’s attempt to minimize the use of plastic bags.
He suggested that the administration start educating customers on being less dependent on plastic bags by reinforcing a pay-for-plastic-bags policy.
“That method was proven to be effective in 2016. Why don’t they just implement it again?” he said. “That way, we could still reduce the use of plastic without banishing it entirely because, like it or not, our society still needs to use them,” he said.
Besides educating customers, Indonesia Plastic Bag Diet Movement executive director Tiza Mafira said business players, such as modern and traditional retailers, hotels, restaurants and cafes, should also be proactive in using environmentally friendly alternatives.
“Businesses, especially those that sell food and beverages, could use recyclable packaging such as banana leaves, paper cups, biodegradable plastic cups or paper bags to help the city produce less plastic waste in the future,” she said.
