According to the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), the production of plastic waste in Indonesia reaches 66 million tons/year and 3.2 million tons is plastic waste in the oceans. This is a problem that cannot be underestimated because in addition to being difficult to decipher, the impact of plastic waste is also bad for health, especially for marine biota. The fact that our country produces 3.2 million tons of plastic waste makes Indonesia the second largest contributor of plastic waste in the world. The amount of waste that increases from year to year certainly cannot stop if there is still a lack of environmental awareness from each individual.
Departing from the above problems, Group of 26 KKNT Faculty of Administrative Sciences, Universitas Brawijaya held a “Plastic Free Zone” Socialization on Sunday (17/72022) at the RW 13 Sekarpuro Village hall.
This socialization was aimed at the management of the environmental waste bank, the head of RT, the head of RW, and the women of PKK RW 13, Sekarpuro Village, Malang Regency. On the agenda, material was presented on the types of plastic waste and their impacts, ways to deal with plastic waste, crafts from plastic waste, and digital platforms that can be used to sell plastic waste handicrafts.
Not only getting knowledge about this, according to Kartika Putri Kumalasari, SE, MSA, Ak as the Field Supervisor, the residents who attended were also given a business idea guide book. “This guidebook aims to utilize plastic waste so that it can motivate residents to recycle waste which can increase their income. Examples of these business ideas are bag crafts from used plastic wrap, ecobricks, earrings from used plastic bottles, pots from used plastic bottles, and so on,” he said.
Before the socialization, the KKNT Group 26 participants invited the residents of RW 13 of Sekarpuro Village to do community service together in order to improve the cleanliness and beauty of the surrounding environment. “This volunteer work is also to disseminate information on sorting waste between organic and inorganic waste. Incidentally, the head of RW 13 also agreed, and urged residents to sort waste according to the type of waste and reduce the amount of plastic waste used,” he added,
“With the socialization of “Plastic Free Zone”, it is hoped that it can raise awareness of the residents of RW 13 Sekarpuro Village to be more concerned about the environment by reducing the use of plastic which can be started from small things, such as using tumbler bottles and reusable shopping bags. If this is applied in a sustainable manner, then the problem of plastic waste in Sekarpuro Village will gradually be resolved and a clean and comfortable environment will be created,” concluded Kartika. (Tika/VQ/ Humas UB/ Trans. Iir)
