If Ragunan Zoo’s animals can be civilized, why can’t we? Photo: ragunanzoo.jakarta.go.id

Yes, Jakartans have a terrible tendency to litter that not even cute “animated” trashcan frogs can fix. It’s not even enough that littering is punishable by a fine of up to Rp 500K by law. No, maybe all we really need is a little bit of positive incentive for encouragement.

That’s what the Ragunan Zoo management has decided on – when you can’t tell people what to do, dangle a shiny prize in front of them to get them to do it.

The zoo is giving out door prizes on weekends to visitors who are conscientious enough to throw their trash in the provided bins.

“We want to educate visitors to take care of the environment,” said Bambang Wahyudi of the Ragunan Zoo Public Relations Department, as quoted by Warta Kota yesterday. 

“We have staff members on the lookout for the prize winners. After determining the winners, we call them over to the Information section.”

The door prizes include souvenirs such as t-shirts and calendars. So there’s really no need for you to purchase expensive zoo souvenirs at the end of your visit should you be a good citizen and put trash away where it belongs.

Bambang said Ragunan is much cleaner ever since the door prize system was introduced last year.

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