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Religious organizations join fight against plastic waste
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Officials use "besek" (containers made of plaited bamboo) to hold meat for qurban (animal sacrifice) at Istiqlal Mosque in Central Jakarta on Aug. 11. (JP/Syelanita)
I
n the fight against plastic waste, religion is now playing a greater role, with religious institutions encouraging the city’s residents to reduce their dependence on single-use plastic bags.
The secretary of the Nahdlatul Ulama central board’s (PBNU) Bahtsul Masail (Discussing Problems) forum, Sarmidi Husna, said it was high time for Muslims to be more concerned about single-use plastic bags, as they contributed to pollution in the city’s main bodies of water, such as the Ciliwung River, which was filled with trash, and Jakarta Bay, where all the waste thrown into the river ended up.
“Seeing those conditions, the PBNU during our national meeting in February also began to look at religious arguments,” Sarmidi told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.
He said that the NU, Indonesia’s largest Muslim organization, had come to the conclusion that littering with single-use plastic bags was haram (forbidden) for Muslims as it damaged the environment both in the short term and long term.
“In Islam, it is forbidden for humans to wreak havoc on earth after God has perfected it,” Sarmidi said, referring to Al-Quran Al-Araf verse 85.
“Starting from there, we see that single-use plastic waste has endangered the environment and other beings. For example, it was found that fish can swallow plastics.”
Sarmidi urged the authorities to impose a ban on plastics to encourage residents and businesses to reduce their dependency on the environmentally harmful material.
