Wealthier Muslims shared thousands of meat packages in besek (containers made of plaited bamboo) and other ecofriendly packaging for qurban meat instead of plastic bags.

On Jl. Kenari I in Senen, Central Jakarta, women flocked to a parking area of a closed shop in an alley where hundreds of besek were stacked for Idul Adha.

While their male counterparts prepared to slaughter sacrificial animals, the women were cleaning the surface of banana leaves and tearing them into smaller pieces. They then placed the leaves inside each besek.

“The leaf prevents juices from the meat from leaking, so people will not ask for plastic bags to keep their hands clean while carrying their besek,” said a resident named Nani. “We’re doing this to avoid using plastic. It would be useless if we still had to wrap [the besek] in plastic bags.”

The neighborhood’s qurban committee head, Ahmad Ibnu Batutah, said residents had gotten the besek from a donor.

“We received 300 sets of besek. We decided to use the containers and lids separately, so we actually have 600 besek in total,” he said.

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