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Roadmap on single-use plastics to be ready by year end: Environment Ministry

The roadmap will, among other things, provide guidelines for brand owners and producers for the reduction of single-use plastics.

Riza Roidila Mufti (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Fri, August 16, 2019

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Roadmap on single-use plastics to be ready by year end: Environment Ministry A recycling worker separates used plastic bottles at a garbage bank on Gili Trawangan, West Nusa Tenggara. The government is drafting a roadmap on environmentally unfriendly packaging materials such as plastics and aluminum. (Vyara Wurjanta/-)

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he Environment and Forestry Ministry is currently drafting a roadmap to phase out the use and production of environmentally unfriendly packaging such as plastic, aluminum cans and glass.

The ministry’s Solid Waste, Hazardous Waste and Toxic Substance Management Director General Rosa Vivien Ratnawati said on Tuesday that the drafting of the roadmap, which would, among other things, provide guidelines for the reduction of single-use plastics, was to be completed by the end of this year.

Rosa said the roadmap would provide guidelines for manufacturers, importers, retailers and the food and beverage service industry to reduce the use packaging materials made from plastic, aluminum cans, glass and paper.

“In the roadmap, we will encourage them [industry players] to redesign their packaging systems to be more environmentally friendly by phasing out single-use plastics. We will also ask them to provide a dropbox as a place for take-back post-consumer products and packaging, so they can reuse or recycle them,” said Rosa on the sidelines of an event held by the British Chamber of Commerce in Indonesia (BritCham) on the multistakeholder approach to achieving sustainable packaging and tackling plastic waste.

Rosa said the roadmap would allow a transition period of 10 years for three categories of businesses, namely brand owners and manufacturers of food and beverage, consumer, cosmetic and personal care products; retailers, including supermarkets, hypermarkets, minimarkets, convenience stores, specialty stores, shopping malls and traditional markets; and the food and beverage service industry, comprising hotels, restaurants, cafes, food halls and catering businesses. 

“We target that within 10 years, they can redesign or change how they package their goods and services. This process will be gradual, as redesigning is not an activity that can be done in a short time,” she said.

The roadmap is a form of extended producer responsibility (EPR), as stipulated in Law No.18/2008 on solid waste management and Governmental Regulation No. 81/2012 on the management of household waste.

According to the Environment and Forestry Ministry, around 66 million tons of waste was produced across the archipelago in 2018, about 60 percent of which was organic waste and 15 percent plastic waste. (hen)

               

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