JAKARTA, Aug 9, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Dozens of people clutching bags full of
plastic bottles and disposable cups queue at a busy bus terminal in the
Indonesian city of Surabaya — where passengers can swap trash for travel
tickets.
The nation is the world’s second-biggest marine polluter behind China and
has pledged to reduce plastic waste in its waters some 70 percent by 2025 by
boosting recycling, raising public awareness, and curbing usage.
The Surabaya scheme has been a hit in the city of 2.9 million, with nearly
16,000 passengers trading trash for free travel each week, according to
authorities.
“This is a very smart solution. It’s free and instead of throwing away
bottles people now collect them and bring them here,” explains 48-year-old
resident Fransiska Nugrahepi.
An hour-long bus ride with unlimited stops costs three large bottles, five
medium bottles or 10 plastic cups. But they must be cleaned and cannot be
squashed.
There is a steady stream of people squeezing past sacks full of recyclables
to deposit plastic in four bins behind the small office and claim their
tickets.
Franki Yuanus, a Surabaya transport official, says the programme aims not
only to cut waste but also to tackle traffic congestion by encouraging people
to switch to public transit.
“There has been a good response from the public,” insists Yuanus, adding:
“Paying with plastic is one of the things that has made people enthusiastic
because up until now plastic waste was just seen as useless.”
Currently the fleet consists of 20 near-new buses, each with recycling bins
and ticket officers who roam the aisles to collect any leftover bottles.
Authorities said roughly six tons of plastic rubbish are collected from
passengers each month before being auctioned to recycling companies.
Nurhayati Anwar, who uses the bus about once a week with her three-year-old
son, said the trash swap programme is changing how people see their throwaway
cups and bottles.
“Now people in the office or at home are trying to collect (rubbish)
instead of just throwing it away,” the 44-year-old accountant told AFP after
trading in several bottles for a free ride.
“We now know that plastic is not good for the environment — people in
Surabaya are starting to learn.”
Other parts of Indonesia, an archipelago of some 17,000 islands, are also
trying to tackle the issue. Bali is phasing in a ban on single-use plastic
straws and bags to rid the popular holiday island of waste choking its
waterways, while authorities in the capital Jakarta are considering a similar
bylaw to rid the city of plastic shopping bags.
Governments around the globe are increasingly taking measures to curb the
menace of disposable plastic.
A 2016 report by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation warned there would be more
plastic than fish, by weight, in the seas by 2050.
It estimated eight million tonnes of plastics enter oceans annually.
It added: “This is equivalent to dumping the contents of one garbage truck
into the ocean every minute. If no action is taken, this is expected to
increase to two per minute by 2030 and four per minute by 2050.”