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Thousand Islands regency aims to stop sending trash to mainland amid growing waste problems
Garbage drifting to Thousand Islands regency amounts to 60 percent of its 40,000 tons of daily waste.
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Garbage pollutes the shores of Panggang Island in the Thousand Islands regency. (Warta Kota/Junianto Hamonangan)
T
he Thousand Islands environment agency aims to stop sending trash to the mainland amid its struggle facing an increasingly dire waste problem. Not only does the regency need to deal with domestic waste from its own residents, it also has to deal with trash left by tourists who visit their islands and a massive amount of trash that is carried by the ocean currents to its beaches.
“The waste problem in Thousands island is very complex because we have to deal with trash from three different sources: locals, tourists and marine debris, which mostly comes from the mainland. The waste that has drifted to our beaches amounts to 60 percent of the waste on the islets,” Riza Lestari Ningsih, staff of the Community Participation and Legal Arrangement of Thousand Island Environment Agency, said on Saturday.
According to 2018 data from the agency, up to 40,000 tons of trash were found each day on the islands during the rainy season. It consisted of 17,000 tons of domestic waste, 1,600 tons of waste from tourism and 21,000 tons of drifting trash.
The trash carried to the Thousand Islands by ocean currents does not only come from the Indonesian mainland, but from other countries as well. Riza said it was not uncommon to find odd things during beach clean-ups. “Some time ago I found Chinese brand cigarette boxes, a Vietnamese water bottle and Turkish snack wrappings. We also saw bath tubs and mattresses washed ashore.”
Each day, the garbage is carried from the islets to the mainland by 85 trash-collecting boats before being dumped in the Bantar Gebang landfill in Bekasi, West Java. However, Riza said, the dumpsite has nearly reached its maximum capacity and was predicted to last for only three more years.
“With the amount of trash dumped on the site having risen almost 50 percent in the last four to five years, the final site is only expected to last until 2021. So the Thousands Island regency needs to find a new way to manage its waste without having to send it to the mainland,” she said.
Piles of waste in the regency’s water had also caused trouble for its residents. Sulaiman Katur, a fisherman from Pari Island, one of the nearest islets to the mainland, said the enormous amount of trash floating in the sea had negatively affected his livelihood.
