PLASTIC BAG

This is the thing that we are all familiar with. No matter where we are, it is always with us. In Indonesia, plastic shopping bag is called kantong plastik, keresek, or tas asoy. Indeed, the plastic shopping bags have been part of our lives. But whether or not we are aware of the impact of these on our environment is another problem that, in my opinion, really matters us. Why so? They cannot easily be broken down in our environment. Planet Ark, an Australian environmental watchdog, has argued that “the plastic bags take between 15 and 1,000 years to break down in the environment”. Australia, our neighbor, has concerned with the plastic bags’ impact for years but it comes up with solution to the problem. One of the solutions that the Australian Government and Australian Retailers Association (ARA) had reached in 2005 was an agreement on reducing the use of plastic shopping bags by 50 percents. That’s what I read from the Planet Ark's website. But from my own experience when shopping, such big supermarkets as Coles and Woolworths do support the agreement by introducing recycled cotton and paper shopping bags with which consumers can use them repeatedly. A lot of consumers bring their own trolleys or hand bags for their purchased goods, and the supermarkets’ cashiers are also active in asking their buyers about whether or not they need the plastic bags.

Today, January 10, 2008, Australian Minister for Environment Peter Garrett has moved further. As quoted by local media, Garrett plans to ban the use of plastic bags in supermarkets by the end of 2008. His argument is simple: saving the Australian environment because, with a population of only 21 million people, Australia uses about four billion plastic bags a year. This is still a big number and will bring serious impact on the environment. If Australia remains supposed to be a big spender of plastic bags, how is about Indonesia, whose total population far exceeds the neighbor's? The size of population is only one factor that makes us different from Australia. Another factor is the people’s awareness of the importance of keeping environment healthy and clean; Australia cannot be compared to Indonesia, whose many of its population cannot even think about what to eat today and tomorrow. Of course, Garrett cannot go ahead smoothly with his plan. The ARA challenges his plan by accusing the federal government of not offering alternative solutions. The ARA further argues that the plan will also bring financial consequences to consumers because retailers will force them to pay for the extra-cost. The ARA also argues that a better litter management is needed because instead of using garbage plastic bags, certain people make their plastic shopping bags their garbage covers. A part from the ongoing debate, one thing is clear. The Australian government has come up with a concrete solution to ending the use of plastic shopping bags in order to reduce the burden of the continental country’s environment. Indonesia? Well, it’s a long way to go. But it is not an endless journey. It remains fresh in our minds that last December, we hosted a very important world summit on environment in Bali – the UNFCCC. As the host, I think we should be ashamed if we fail to save our own environment. Of course, we must meet our commitment to rescuing our tropical forests and coral reefs from further damages for the sake of our future generation and the world amid the serious threats of global warming. We need to do big things for big changes. But, this big step must not let us forget simple things that every individual in the country can do together in order to reduce the burden of our earth. One of them is start reducing the use of plastic shopping bags now!