Indonesia caught in dilemma as plastic debris in UN spotlight

If the world populace — especially Chinese and Indonesian — keep littering the Earth with plastic wastes with no drastic changes, we might see more of the fossil fuel-based polymers swimming in our oceans than of the fishes, in the next 33 years.

That was what the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Gutteres warned in his remarks during the plenary meeting of the Ocean Conference at the UN headquarters in New York, on Monday.

“Pollution, overfishing and the effects of climate change are severely damaging the health of our oceans. According to one recent study, plastic could outweigh fish, if nothing happens, in our seas by 2050,” he said.

Plastic debris is among main problems addressed in the UN’s maiden Ocean Conference. It puts Indonesia in a gawky situation because it holds status as one of the main culprits while it must lead a fight against such a problem in the event.

China and Indonesia — which has been appointed as one of the vice presidents of the conference — are two biggest sources of plastic pollution in the oceans, according to the UN General Assembly president Peter Thomson.

In a bid to suggest the Association of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN) members to join effort to curb plastic debris, Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister Luhut Panjaitan hosted a lunch meeting with the ASEAN delegates on the sideline of the Ocean Conference Monday.

He previewed the forthcoming Summit Conference on Plastic Debris which was set to be launched in Bali in September, and would be attended by China, India, the United States (US), Russia, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, and ASEAN countries.

"Marine plastic debris has caused US$1.2 billion worth of losses in the fisheries, shipping, tourism, and insurance businesses. This may lead to a catastrophe if we don’t take urgent acts, because unemployment may lead to poverty and social problems and will eventually fuel radicalism and terrorism,” he said in a press statement.

A US-based non-government environmental organization Trash Free Seas Alliance (TFSA) revealed that micro plastics — as part of the 8 million tons plastic that tainted the oceans each year — have been found in 28 percent of the fish in Indonesia’s markets. Attending the Ocean Conference, TFSA wants to reduce the plastics in the ocean by half in 2025.

According to Luhut, Indonesia had so far cooperated with the World Bank, Denmark, and the US to conduct a research on the plastic level in the fishes. He reiterated that the global industries highly contributed to plastic debris.

“Several researches have suggested that the plastic debris are also dumped by the ships. It turns out that the two third of the world’s plastic wastes come from South Asia region,” Luhut said.

He further said that the Ministry had analyzed and made several action plans to deal with the marine debris, such as massive public campaign against plastic littering, reduction in the plastic production and usage, as well as controlling waste managements both on land and at sea.

"On regional level, we cooperate with local administrations in the waste management, urge them to control the wastes, and to prevent plastics wastes in the ocean. On national level, we launch a campaign to change the public paradigm about wastes and teach our young generation, through the curriculum, to preserve the coastline," Luhut said.

Last year, Indonesia saw one of its measures on ‘plastic waste reduction’ ended up in failure. In just eight months after the national policy requiring stores to charge for plastic shopping bags implemented, the country revoked the rules.

Responding on the plastic debris issue, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti acknowledged that dealing with plastic debris was not an easy task as it must involve many parties from the national to local level.

“We keep on launching the national campaign on the issue. However, the local leaders must also take a lead, because the problem also lies in the domestic level, related to the people's habit, attitude, and awareness,” she said.

In the Ocean Conference on Monday, the UN called for concrete steps from reducing pollution, to cleaning up plastic waste.

“I call for a step change, from local and national initiatives to an urgent, coordinated international effort […] Improving the health of our oceans is a test for multilateralism, and we cannot afford to fail. I call on all member states to engage in the dialogue necessary to define a new model for the future governance of our oceans,” Gutteres said.