(06/10/2022) It is well known that plastic had played a significant role in recent times. microplastics are small plastics less than 5 millimeters long. Microplastics come from various sources. such as degraded bottle plastics and containers. but recent studies found that the 35% of microplastics, are derived from Textiles and clothes.
the dangers of microplastics are caused when they got introduced to the food chain. fish that consumes microplastics can inherit the microplastics into the bird or bigger fish. once consumed by humans. the effects are clear. such as cancer, Nerves damages, and Disorders of the reproductive system.
Indonesia with the population of 275,501,339 (2022) produces 7.8 million tons of plastics annually. but 4.9 millions are mismanaged and the rest are left in landfills. while japan produces 9.4 millions tons of plastics waste and 24,8% are recycled and 81,6% are recycled and energy recovered (2018)
eventhough Japan produces more plastic waste than indonesia, but their waste management are one of the best in the world. their waste management process are not 100% done by the government. but also by the citizen. from early ages their youngs are taught to separate Waste by 8 types. in which plastics are separated once more into 2 types in which PET bottles and the caps are separated and must be cleaned before put into the waste bags.
Below are fig.1, the Waste calender of Japan. to eases their waste management the japanese even schedule their waste disposal.
they also have their own designated waste bags with different colors and clear identification (fig.2) . and they designed it to become as simple as possible while retain the Important information. so that a children can easily identify which waste are they disposing.
in figure 3 is a picture from Jatibarang landfills. Organic and plastic waste are not separated, there are a few actions that was put to utilize the waste in jatibarang landfill, like Methane capturing for Electricity producing using gas turbine, and compost producing plant. but both of them are not operating as effective as they’re designed to. the gas turbine’s get little to no maintenance because of very little funding, and then the compost producing plant are not in 100% producing capacity since the owner has died, and his sons won’t continue the bussiness. it’s very contrasting with figure 4. it is a picture of Tokyo’s Plan to make island from compressed garbage. they ensure the garbage doesn’t spill out to the water by applying walls around them. this very garbage will become a part of Reclamation plan for tokyo.
it is safe to say that Indonesia are left behind in waste management by the japanese by 30 years. and it is our job to keep up and match with the world’s Recent Technology.
Writer : Andono Kusuma Jati
sources :https://ec.europa.eu/environment/international_issues/pdf/S2-02-Yusuke%20Inoue.pdf
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220823-quitting-single-use-plastic-in-japan