Page 18 from: Recycling International: Free Issue, 2 2023
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To witness the impact and scale of
ocean-bound plastics on East Java,
the fishing port of Lekok is the
place to start. The village beach
southeast of Indonesia’s second
largest city Surabaya is covered
with a 50 cm deep mush of house-
hold waste, mostly plastics but also
nappies, paper, clothing, furniture,
you name it. All flooded in from the
land and the sea to create this sad
and shocking scene. To get good
photos, I suggest Mahesa Adishakti,
technical officer at the Stop Ocean
Plastics platform (STOP for short),
walks over the waste. ‘Better not,’
he warns, ‘you would sink like in a
swamp.’
BEACH CLEAN-UP
What makes the pollution at Lekok
extra shocking is that the mush is the
result of only one year’s pollution. ‘In
December 2022, it took 300 volun-
teers 10 days and 40 truck loads to
clean it all up and now we’re back to
square one,’ says Adishakti, while
insisting all that effort has not been in
vain: ‘It adds to the awareness that
we’re in this together and that people
and communities have to take respon-
sibility and act.’
Plastic pollution is a big and fast-
growing problem in Indonesia, espe-
cially in East Java. This region has sev-
eral major rivers which serve as corri-
dors for plastic waste to reach the
ocean. In addition, East Java’s grow-
ing population and rapid industrialisa-
tion have contributed to an increase in
plastic consumption and waste.
40 000 TONNES, 333 JOBS
The STOP initiative helps cities and
communities in south-east Asia, mainly
in Indonesia, combat marine plastics.
Since its launch in 2017, it has provided
access to waste management and recy-
cling services to more than 300 000
people, created 333 jobs, built four
collection/sorting stations and prevent-
ed more than 40 000 tonnes of waste,
including more than 5 000 tonnes of
plastics, from leaking into the environ-
ment. STOP has three projects on Java
and one on Bali. One of the Java proj-
ects covers the Pasuruan district which
includes 20 or so villages and commu-
nities, including Lekok.
DUMPING AND BURNING
Before 2017, Pasuruan lacked a prop-
er waste collection system, according
to STOP’s programme director Mike
Webster. ‘Only 4% of the population
had access to waste management,’ he
says. ‘In the villages and rural areas
most of the household waste was ille-
gally dumped wherever people could
get rid of it, or simply burned in fields
and backyards.’
It took a lot of effort to change the
mindset of the local people. In an area
Mike Webster (left, programme director), Lintong Manik (project manager), Pak Suaibe (director of
the Mumdesma Lekok collection & sorting station), Fadila Hapsari (communications manager),
and Mahesa Adishakti (technical facility officer).
SO MUCH WORK LEFT TO BE DONE
Indonesia is the world’s second biggest source of marine debris, after China
but ahead of the Philippines, Vietnam and India. These countries are seeing
spectacular economic growth and with that comes greater plastic consump-
tion, boosting the development of solid waste management systems.
Current estimates show that just 45-50% of Indonesia’s urban solid waste is
collected, with significant variation in performance among cities. The coun-
try consumes more than seven million tonnes of plastic every year and leaks
around one million tonnes per year into waterways.
In response, the government has announced a bold commitment to reduce
Indonesia’s ocean plastic levels by 70% by 2025 and created a Marine
Debris Action Plan. Delivery depends on a rapid acceleration of waste man-
agement systems at the city level, combined with system-level policy, inno-
vation and circular approaches to material and product design. Project
STOP aims to support this commitment by rolling out business models
‘towards cleaner, circular solutions where waste is recycled’.
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