On June 5, 2018, ANGIN was invited to the World Environment Day 2018 talk at the Greenhouse Cowork center. The World Environment Day is an annual event led by the United Nations focused on raising awareness on the world environment. This year’s theme for World Environment Day is #BeatPlasticPollution. Speakers for the event included representatives from Greenhouse, Waste4Change, Project Semesta. Gerakan Indonesia Diet Kantong Plastik as well as the Danish ambassador, Mr. Rasmus Kristensen, and the Swedish ambassador, Mrs. Johanna Skoog.
Here are the key takeaways from the event:
- Both Sweden and Norway uses various incentives, such as taxes or refunds, to change behavior on plastic use, recycling, and general waste management
- In a short 27 city trial run of a plastic bag charge, plastic bag consumption has declined by around 55%
- The resulting snowball effect resulted in the Indonesian government working on a plastic reduction policy which includes targets such a 70% reduction of marine plastic debris by 2025
- Roughly 80% of Indonesia’s waste materials can be composted and recycled yet roughly 80% is not managed properly
- There needs to be a paradigm shift towards Reducing, Reusing and Recycling rather than only focusing on disposal/landfill
- There are 5 Aspects that are needed to implement responsible waste management: policy/regulation, stakeholder participation, finance, institutions and operational technique
- What we can do to start eliminating waste: rethink, refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle and reroot