Indonesia connects science, citizens, business and governments to combat waste
One of the world’s worst plastic polluters, Indonesia just launched the first of a string of Living Labs to help local people lift themselves out of a ‘plastic waste emergency’.
South East Asia’s biggest nation, Indonesia pumps out 11.5 million tonnes of plastic waste a year. Some 3.4 million tonnes of this ends up as litter, with more than half of the rest going to landfills.
Launched in Banyuwangi, East Java, the first Living Lab will show locals which pieces of plastic litter there are most of and do most damage, and find ways to reduce it.
Started by PISCES (The Partnership for Plastics in Indonesian Society), it is a bold step to help Indonesia’s Coordinating Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Investment’s (CMMAI) goal to cut plastic waste leakage into the ocean by 70% by 2025.
Banyuwangi, like many parts of Indonesia, has a huge problem with plastic pollution and is an area the government are targeting as a test-bed for national change. The PISCES Living lab will help bring waste collection and management to more than a million people.
PISCES’ plan is to eventually roll out living labs to every province nationwide with the second and third planned for Bali and East Nusa Tenggara. “We want to help Indonesia be the first nation worldwide to introduce a sweeping, cross value chain approach to combat plastic waste and pollution,” said director, Prof Susan Jobling of Brunel University London.
“This will induce a wave of change that addresses plastic pollution at the source. We hope it will spark greater collaboration and commitment from other countries. It will protect marine and freshwater ecosystems, improve fisheries and tourism, strengthen local economies and transform city governance.”
The team will develop ways to ‘avoid, reduce, reuse, and recycle’ plastic waste. This means shifting from single-use plastic packaging such as dry food sachets, plastic bags and takeaway food containers to reusable, refillable, or returnable packaging. And since Banyuwangi has no rubbish collection service, they’ll also focus on finding efficient ways to collect, sort and process plastic waste and look for plastic alternatives.
Dr Eleni Iacovidou lectures in environmental management at Brunel, which is working with PISCES alongside the Universities of Plymouth, Leeds, Strathclyde, the Asian Institute of technology (AIT), the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and six Indonesian universities. She said: “living labs are a place where solutions to plastic pollution are co-created to support communities making the transition to a sustainable future where plastic pollution is prevented. The successful implementation of any solution should also be backed by strategies at the policy level that nudge and support multiple stakeholders across the value chain to take action and change the way they think about and use plastics.
“The PISCES partnership seeks to not only provide solutions but also educate and train people on how to separate plastic waste and how to prevent pollution by adopting new ways of doing things.”