Banjarmasin, S Kalimantan (Antaranews) - An independent agency based in Jakarta, Ideafest, invited Banjarmasin Mayor Ibnu Sina to become a keynote speaker in a talk show entitled "Wiser Choice For Planet - Benefit in The Long Run."
The talk show which took place at the Jakarta Convention Center, Friday (26/10), presented three speakers, actress Eva Celia, Kartika Anindya, and Tiza Mafira
The mayor was previously invited by the Ministry of Environment for the same reason related to his policy for prohibiting plastic bags using in modern shopping in Banjarmasin and how he took such an extraordinary step.
He said, overall the landfill area owned by Banjarmasin City is only 39.5 hectares, and it is predicted that in the next 5 years it will no longer able to accommodate garbage piles.
"People will definitely be confused about where they will throw garbage. So reducing the pile must be from the source. The Mayor Regulation No. 18/2016 was then signed when I was only three months as mayor," he told.
Plastic waste deposits before the regulation were 84.8 tons. After it applied plastic waste on average only around 2.33 percent per year, meaning that there was a reduction of approximately 62.6 tons.
While the government implemented the regulation, people were directed to use bakul purun (a traditional woven baskets made of purun grass) instead of plastic bags. Different from disposable plastic, bakul can be used repeatedly and the material is from plants that grow a lot in swamp areas.
The use of purun baskets, he said, turned out to have an impact on employment and business opportunities for the community, including diffable people who with their limitations were recruited to participate in making purun baskets.
"At the end of 2017, there were many requests for purun baskets as an alternative to plastic bags. If not mistaken from Rumah Kreatif sent almost 1000 bakul purun per month. The request was sent to Jakarta as a substitute for plastic bags and this caused an effect of increasing welfare for the citizens," he explained.
Tiza Mafira, the woman who had worked as a Presidential Special Staff in the International Affair during the Government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said that the use of plastic bags must be done wisely so that the waste generated from unused plastic bags could be controlled.
"We see that plastic bags are used unwise, and everyone seems to use plastic bags as they like as we breathe with oxygen, even though the impact of the garbage is very extraordinary," she said.
The Executive Director of the Indonesian Movement for the Plastic Bag Diet invites people to a plastic bag diet. "The plastic bag diet calls on people to wisely use plastic bags," she concluded.
