Jakarta plastic-ban: A solution or complication?

Thailand started their New Year with banning single-use plastic bags at major stores. Thai people reacted by creating solutions that went viral in a blink. People were showing up at nearby stores with a cart, fruit basket, used rice sack, birdcage, traffic cone and many other items to carry their groceries.

While it is a hilarious feat to look at, it’s also apparent how cooperative the vocal majority was with the ban. It became an effective way to promote the concern.

In Jakarta, the plastic-ban decree will be effective in July 2020. According to Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan through Gubernatorial Regulation No.142/2019, plastic bags are to be banned from shopping malls, retailers, or any marketplace at all.

It is already quite clear that the single-use plastics which are banned are those made of, among other things, plastic, polymer thermoplastics, latex and polytene. So far, it is safe to say that this ban does not forbid any sort of packaging per se.

This ban is by no means meant to make consumers’ lives harder; the brands and retail companies just have to be more creative in choosing the material of their package. Luckily, Indonesia is not short of such invention.

Avani produces bio-cassava bags that can biodegrade in less than five years. A quick reminder, Avani’s “plastic” bag is the bag that quickly dissolved in a video that went viral. The cassava-based “plastic” bags now can be easily found in the packaging of a number of their clients which include Heineken, Eiger, Fipper and Dufry.

They have also updated the sustainable packaging they can tailor for each client. Indonesia is not short of many other eco-friendly alternatives. It seems that nothing could go wrong thus far. It is just that the ones who are being held responsible for the packages are not exactly the brands.

In shopping centres, the management would be the one being held responsible if the tenants are not heeding this ban. This also applies to traditional marketplaces. The brands or retailers that do not comply with this ban could get the marketplace management sanctioned administratively by the Environmental Services and the Investment and One-Stop Integrated Services Office.

Although this was surely meant to simplify matters, there is still a chance that it will be ineffective. Afterall, this doesn’t educate the brands and retailers directly, considering it is them who are in full control to choose the type of packaging they would be using.

Indonesian Center for Environmental Law (ICEL), a research institution that focuses on environment-related policy-making, welcomes this ban. However, they pointed out some points in the regulation. One of them is the part where the offices responsible of giving sanctions may not publicise the marketplaces they sanction.

Being aware that the F&B industry is one of the biggest producers of plastic waste, they are also hopeful that the provincial government would put more details into regulating a transition process from using single-use plastics to more sustainable options, both for the merchants and the consumers. Lastly, ICEL encourages the provincial government to expand their ban to other types of plastic waste, such as straws and polystyrene foam.

Aside from the technicalities of the ban itself, the reactions of the people are pretty much less uniformed like the Thais’. Aside from the majorly supportive netizens, a number of people voiced out the inefficiency from the lack of alternatives to single-use plastic bags when shopping.

Some complained about how hard it is for the public who have become reliant on repurposing those single-use plastic bags in their daily lives. Some even argued that this ban is counterproductive as it could drive demand for trash bags. However, nothing beats what the Minister of Industry said about the ban.

Image: Polluted river in Indonesia via Shutterstock

The Indonesian Ministry of Industry criticized the DKI Jakarta provincial government’s policy-making this time. Minister of Industry, Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita, sees no strong correlation between single-use plastic ban with reducing waste. Instead of banning single-use plastic in Jakarta, he stated that what Jakarta needs is better waste management. He said that a good waste management could improve the recycling industry and provide alternative energy to be used.

All pros and cons aside, when executed right, this single-use plastic ban could be the first, baby step that has to be taken for an actual change in the future, especially for Jakarta. No matter how unique the critics from the Ministry of Industry sounds like, it is a fact that Jakarta does need to improve its waste management, too. Hopefully, this is something that would go far and well. Hopefully, this time the change can be real.