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Prabowo team dismisses concern about plastic use in meals program
The team around the president-elect says a pilot project for the program has consistently used stainless steel food trays rather than disposable packaging.
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A worker stacks stainless steel trays during a trial event held in West Java on Aug. 1, 2024, in preparation for the free school lunch program planned by president-elect Prabowo Subianto. (Prabowo Subianto transition team/-)
T
he transition team of president-elect Prabowo Subianto has sought to dispel concerns over the use of single-use plastics in its flagship free school meals program.
The team’s spokesperson, Hasan Nasbi, told The Jakarta Post on Friday that a pilot program that had been running for seven months had consistently used stainless steel food trays rather than disposable packaging.
He shared a picture with the Post that he said had been taken of the pilot project somewhere in West Java, which shows kitchen workers with stacks of stainless food trays with lids of the type often used in cafeterias.
“We have no plans to change the packaging, [because] we are using stainless steel containers,” Hasan said, adding that the containers would be used at all service units.
The clarification comes after pictures emerged that suggested the program to feed more than 82 million schoolchildren, teachers and pregnant women could rely heavily on single-use plastics, including thin boxes, cling film and disposable cutlery.
The photos show vice president-elect Gibran Rakabuming Raka overseeing what appear to be trials for the program in Surakarta, Central Java, and other locations in late July and early August.
Experts have warned that the use of single-use plastics in the program would add significantly to the volume of post-consumer waste and exacerbate the country’s plastic pollution problem.
