The Jakarta administration has claimed that it is getting closer to issuing a regulation that will pave the way to a ban on the use of single-use plastic bags.

The Jakarta Environment Agency would resubmit a draft of a gubernatorial regulation to Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan in the coming days, agency head Isnawa Adji said. Once signed by the governor, the regulation will take effect next month.

The agency had previously aimed for the regulation to be issued in January. However, Anies had demanded a revision to the regulation, particularly regarding the provision of an alternative to replace plastic bags, amid strong opposition to the policy from the business sector.

The regulation, based on a 2013 bylaw on waste management, will stipulate that traditional markets, retailers and shopping malls must provide customers with environmentally friendly shopping bags. The regulation also stipulates incremental fines and sanctions to be imposed on mall and market operators that fail to comply. The city will first reprimand the violators before punishing them with a fine of up to Rp 25 million (US$1,776) and revocation of their business permit should they repeatedly flout the regulation.

Compliant businesses will be given fiscal incentives, the agency revealed during a presentation of the planned regulation, which invited plastic producers and shopping mall associations in Jakarta, the agency’s waste management division head Rahmawati said.

Anies said on Monday that the city was not restricting plastic entirely but only single-use products such as plastic bags and straws. “The plastic industry need not worry,” he said.

In the first six months after the regulation is issued, awareness-raising campaigns will be held to reach a greater part of society, such as through online-based food delivery couriers and tenants at traditional markets. During that time there will be no sanctions for violators. Shopping malls and traditional market operators are required to inform, monitor and reprimand tenants that still provide single-use plastic bags.

Rahmawati cited the agency’s internal survey in January, in which the majority of respondents, who were mostly housewives, agreed with the ban and were willing to carry their own bags while shopping.

“Now we demand that steps be taken by [plastic] producers to create environmentally friendly plastic bags,” she said.

There have been mounting calls for the administration to take real action to solve the waste problem. With around 10 million registered residents and over 3 million people commuting to the city each day, Jakarta produces 7,200 tons of waste daily. This amounts to 2.5 million tons of waste annually, 357,000 tons of which is in the form of plastic. Only half of this plastic can be disposed of at Bantar Gebang in Bekasi, Jakarta’s only landfill which is predicted to reach full capacity in 2021.

Much of the untreated waste has polluted the city’s rivers up to Thousand Islands regency, which is known for its marine tourism.

Ujang Solihin Sidik of the Environment and Forestry Ministry’s Waste Management Directorate said the plastic waste accumulated in Jakarta’s rivers had created a 50-centimeter layer of sediment.

“No wonder floods regularly occur,” he said.

The ministry expected the upcoming gubernatorial regulation to have a significant impact.

“This regulation is crucial and once it’s issued its effect will be huge nationwide, since Jakarta is the barometer of the country,” he said on Thursday.

Isnawa said with the regulation, the administration expected to reduce daily waste production in Jakarta by 20 percent this year.

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