Plastic Waste Brand Audit in Bali, What are the Most Found?

TheIndonesia.id - Assistant Deputy for Waste and Waste Management at the Coordinating Ministry for Maritime Affairs and Investment of Indonesia Rofi Alhanif appreciated the brand audit of plastic waste that pollutes the environment in Bali. In a brand audit report on plastic waste in Bali in 2021, watchdog Sungai Watch revealed the top 10 companies whose products and packaging pollute Bali the most.

"Recently, there was a good study in Bali, a brand audit of plastic waste so that it is known which company products end up in nature, be it in rivers or the sea," said Rofi in a statement in Jakarta, Saturday, June 4, 2022.

He referred to a study by Sungai Watch, a non-governmental organization in Bali, on single-use plastic waste, including plastic sachets, plastic bottles, and plastic cups, that pollute rivers and marine waters on the Island of the Gods. The audit also found that almost half of the total plastic waste analyzed was in the form of single-use sachet packaging waste.

Of the total 67,000 items, more than 30 percent are snack sachets, equivalent to the total waste of coffee and instant noodle products. According to Rofi, brand audits such as those conducted by Sungai Watch are useful for educating producers to be more responsible for recalling the products and plastic packaging they produce and dispose of in the open environment as waste.

"There are indeed many challenges, especially for products such as sachets, which are somewhat of a dilemma because the demand is high, especially in areas where the community or economy is weak," he said in the National Dialogue on Plastic Waste Management by Manufacturers.

Therefore, Rofi encourages producers to actively explore the mechanism for withdrawing plastic waste that involves various parties, including the community.

Previously, the Head of the Sub-Directorate for Producer Management at the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, Ujang Solihin Sidik, acknowledged the dilemma of the massive distribution of single-use products, which had problems in terms of packaging (problematic packaging), especially sachets.

The government encourages producers to adopt a phasing-out of food product and packaging production with mini plastic containers as stated in the Minister of Environment and Forestry Regulation Number 75 of 2019 concerning Roadmaps for Reducing Waste by Producers. In the regulation, bottled water producers are directed to stop the production and circulation of all mini-packages, below 1 liter, as of December 2029. Similar rules apply to sachets of under 50 milliliters.

"The regulation applies to all levels of producers, both large and small. But in its implementation, the main target is big companies because they are the biggest contributors to plastic waste," said Ujang.