Consumers may need to carry their own shopping bags or pay for plastic ones next month at the 74 shopping centers taking part in the Jakarta Great Sale (JGS).
The Pay for Plastic campaign, started last month by Jakarta lawyer Tiza Mafira through an online petition at Change.org, has received plenty of support from the Jakarta administration and a shopping center association.
Deputy Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama has declared June of this year as no-plastic month, although Tiza and her friends had only proposed a one-day day campaign.
“We hoped that by making customers pay for plastic bags, they would become aware of the campaign, and in the future they would carry their own bags and reduce waste,” Tiza told The Jakarta Post over the weekend.
“We realize that we still need plastic bags, but at least we can reduce usage for the sake of environment.”
More than 6,200 people have signed the #pay4plastic petition, which is supported by environmental organizations like the Greeneration Indonesia, the World Wide Fund’s Earth Hour community, LeafPlus and the Ciliwung Institute.
The administration plans to pressurize the 74 shopping centers participating in JGS 2013 to make people pay for plastic bags and provide bags that can be used repeatedly.
JGS is an annual event which has become an integral part of Jakarta’s anniversary celebrations.
This year it will run from June 1 to July 14.
Among the 74 shopping centers taking part are Cilandak Town Square, Grand Indonesia, Mall of Indonesia, Pacific Place, Plaza Indonesia, Plaza Senayan, Pondok Indah Mall, Senayan City and Taman Anggrek.
Jakarta produces around 8,000 tons of waste every day, with over 13 percent, or around 1,060 tons, being plastic. Plastic bags do not biodegrade into soil.
Light breaks them down into smaller particles that contaminate the soil and water and are expensive and difficult to remove. Some estimate that it takes 500 years for bags to degrade in soil.
Developed countries, and a number of developing countries like India, have run such campaigns for a long time now.
The Jakarta chapter of the Indonesian Association of Shopping Centers says it will push for retailers to pay attention to the petition.
“We certainly support the campaign if it’s for the environment,” association head Handaka Santosa said.
“But we can only ask retailers to follow the campaign because we are not directly involved in sales.”
Handaka suggests that the city administration give ecofriendly retailers an award to boost the campaign, and guarantee the campaign’s durability.
Arief Aziz, cofounder of Change.org, said the petition was one of the campaigns with the fastest increase in support.
An East Jakarta resident, Azizah, said the plan was good but would need to be properly disseminated to customers.
“Customers may get mad, thinking that this is only a trick from a shop to make a profit,” she told the Post.
“The city administration should make sure people everywhere know about this campaign.”
