In many villages of Indonesia, proper management of plastic waste is lacking, especially in coastal communities. From a recent published study, the usage of plastic is increasingly outpacing mitigation efforts. Indonesian and Australian researchers found that waste management and the capacity of infrastructure in coastal communities like the South Sulawesi province was ineffective in stopping plastic debris from polluting marine ecosystems. 

 

Results from surveys, interviews and focus group discussions conducted by the paper’s authors with nearly 6,700 households in the province’s Selayar and Wakatobi archipelagic sub-districts showed that knowledge about plastic waste and how to manage it properly was relatively low, while the use of plastic was on the rise with the greater availability and consumption of single-use plastic packaging.

 

Most of the waste from coastal communities usually end up in the ocean, and not in a landfill or anywhere near a recycling facility. In fact, an average 2,000 kilograms of plastic waste per week might leak into the ocean from just a single village. Residents either burn their waste, dump them into the sea, or in piles that wash away in heavy rains.

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Written by: Basten Gokkon