Environmentalists say plastic bags are a plague on our environments, adding vast amounts of pollution to our oceans, killing wildlife, using up precious natural resources and taking decades to decompose. And they’re just plain ugly (though don’t tell Katy Perry that).
Many countries in the world have added taxes or charges to restrict the use of plastic bags, and some have even banned them all together.
Indonesia is probably far from banning them, but it is taking a positive step forward next month when a total of 17 cities, including Jakarta, will implement a policy forcing consumers to pay for plastic bags, which will hopefully significantly reduce their usage.
“We will gradually start with modern retail stores first, so that later they will not provide free plastic bags,” said Tuti Hendrawati Mintarsih, director of solid waste management at the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, as quoted by Okezone.
The policy will be launched in conjunction with the National Waste Care Day on February 21 and will be implemented in Jakarta, Bandung, Bekasi, Depok, Bogor, Tangerang, Solo, Semarang, Surabaya, Denpasar, Palembang, Medan, Balikpapan, Banjarmasin, Makassar, Ambon and Papua.
According to Tuti, the policy will encourage people to reuse the bags they already have at home
“We will reduce the use of plastic bags by forcing them to pay,” he said.
But as of now, there is still been no price set that retailers will have to charge consumers for the bags, although discussions between retailers and the government are still taking place.
Government data suggests that consumers have used about 9.8 billion plastic bags over the last 10 years, of which 95% ended up in the trash.
Tuti mentioned that similar plastic bag policies in places such as Hong Kong and the UK have managed to decrease their consumption by up to 73%. He also mentioned that pilot programs in Bandung and Cimahi had already been started.
Hopefully the policy will be implemented uniformly in a way that really forces Indonesian consumers to think ahead and bring their own bags to the store. Sure it’s inconvenient now, but if the government can pull it off our children will thank them.
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