Jakarta and 8 other Indonesian cities ready to start making consumers pay for plastic bags on Feb 21

In a rare instance of people being happy to pay more for something, environmentalists cheered last month’s news that the governments of 17 Indonesia cities, including Jakarta, would start forcing shops to charge consumers for plastic bags on February 21.

But as so often happens in Indonesia, such positive news was also greeted with skepticism and questions of whether the plan, then still in discussion, would actually be implemented by the government. 

Now, here we are, just 12 days before the supposed start date of the plastic bag payment plan, and guess what? The agreements have been signed and there are nine cities that will actually be ready to implement the policy on February 21 (which happens to be National Waste Awareness Day).

“These nine areas are part of the 23 city districts which have signed agreements to implement the paid plastics bags policy,” said the director general of waste management and toxic substances at the Ministry of Environment and Forests (KLHK), Tuti Hendrawati Mintarsih, today as quoted by Tempo.

Tuti noted that while there are only nine areas that will be ready to implement the policy on February 21, there are 23 city districts that have agreed to eventually start charging consumers for bags. Among the obstacles each area must overcome is creating new regulations to force local businesses to comply, usually through a gubernatorial decree.

The nine areas that will implement the policy on February 21 include Jakarta, Bandung, Banda Aceh, Bogor, Makassar, Tangerang and Balikpapan. They will eventually be joined by cities including Bekasi, Depok, Tangerang, Solo, Semarang, Surabaya, Denpasar, Palembang, Medan, Banjarmasin, Ambon and Jayapura.

The exact price for the plastic bags has not yet been decided on. KLHK has proposed Rp 500 per bag while Bandung has proposed a rate of Rp 200 per bag. 

Do you think either of those prices will be able to make a dent in Indonesia’s plastic bag problem? We sure hope so. At the very least, we’re going to finally start remember to bring our reusable bags to the grocery store starting on February 21.