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Support and Governance toward Great-Without-Plastic-Waste Earth or #AsikTanpaSampahPlastik

Various solutions to reduce plastic waste have been widely campaigned. Starting from using recyclable materials, integrated waste management, and other methods. However, without synergy between upstream and downstream interventions, the effectiveness of plastic waste reduction is still lacking. Heavily relying on using disposable plastics also contributes to increasing plastic waste from year to year, which takes a serious toll on the environment and triggers extreme climate change.

According to the report entitled “Stopping the Plastic Wave” by The Pew Charitable Trusts and SYSTEMIQ, unmanaged plastic waste will grow to 239 million tons in 2040 if the Business as Usual (BAU) scenario continues to be implemented. According to data from National Geographic, developed countries produce more than 50 percent of the world’s waste. On the other hand, until now Indonesia is still categorized as one of the largest sea pollutants in the world, one rank under China. This report shows that Indonesia contributes 187.2 million tons of plastic waste per year.

All parties must play a part in addressing the plastic waste issue. The upstream sector roles, such as reducing or replacing plastics in production and product redesign, serve as an important innovations to reduce plastic waste. In the downstream sector, efforts to reduce plastic waste can be done through recycling and campaigning to reduce disposable waste.

The government, through the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs, encourages the application of circular economy to achieve Indonesia’s climate change target, including from waste management. A circular economy is an industrial approach to the reduce, reuse, and recycle practices, leading to reduction of primary resource consumption and waste production. According to the Ministry, the implementation of a green and circular economy can potentially create 4.4 million new jobs in 2030, where three-quarters of them can be filled by women. The circular economy has also garnered support from the private and public sectors.

Supporting governance that focuses on reducing plastic waste and celebrating Earth Day, which falls on 22 April 2022, members of The Environmental and Conservation Philanthropist Cluster, which consists of Belantara Foundation, Dompet Dhuafa, Climateworks Centre, Greeneration Foundation, and Filantropi Indonesia, highlighted a large theme of #AsikTanpaSampahPlastik or Great without Plastic Waste. The series of activities were held from 11 to 22 April 2022. This movement also supported the previous movement in 2020, with a similar tagline of ‘Great Kurban without Plastic Waste” or ‘Kurban Asik Tanpa Sampah Plastik’.

The series of #AsikTanpaSampahPlastik campaign were also supported by various activities that have been carried out by members of The Environmental and Conservation Philanthropist Cluster. 

Dompet Dhuafa Volunteer, which currently has 17 thousand members across many regions, will invigorate an initiative to educate people to replace plastics with environmentally-friendly packaging during Eid Al-Adha Kurban in all areas. Alternatives to using plastics include bamboo boxes (besek), bamboo baskets (bongsang), teak leaves, banana leaves, cassava leaf plastics, and other types of packaging that can also highlight local wisdom.

In line with this, Greeneration Foundation continues to promote and campaign the waste management issue to multiple parties so that people care and work together in managing plastic waste. "Greeneration Foundation realizes that the increasingly massive use of plastic accelerates climate change. We promote the role and collaboration of all stakeholders to overcome this issue,” said Vanessa Letizia, the Executive Director of Greeneration Foundation. 

In this case, Climateworks Centre also views the importance of various business and technological innovations, both by large and start-up industries, in reducing plastic waste. “We also support the government’s mission to prioritize circular economy as a solution for this issue”, said Guntur Sutiyono, the Indonesia Country Lead of ClimateWorks Centre.

“As a philanthropy organization, we strongly promote efforts to reduce plastic waste as a mutual contribution to achieving SDGs to strengthen the Philanthropy Hub in Indonesia”, said Gusman Yahya, the Executive Director of Filantropi Indonesia.

During the same opportunity, Dr. Dolly Priatna, the Executive Director of Belantara Foundation, as the Coordinator for Filantropi Indonesia’s Environmental and Conservation Cluster, added that efforts to handle plastics need to be promoted with collaboration and active participation from various sectors so that it impacts the people’s behavioral change in managing waste, especially plastic waste.

The series of #AsikTanpaSampahPlastik events that have been conducted include the talk shows “Strategy to Manage Plastic Waste from Upstream to Downstream” and “Why do Plastics Impact our Climate?”. The talk show held on 20 April 2022 were also attended by the following resource persons: Head of Program of Greeneration Foundation, Fahrian Yovantra; CEO and Co-founder of QYOS, Fazrin Raham; Director of Madina Zone of Dompet Dhuafa, Udhi Tri Kurniawan; and Sustainability Analyst of Tetra Park Indonesia, Fatma Nur Rosana.

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