Susi Pudjiastuti Angry, AMDK Plastic Glass Waste Fills Pangandaran Beach

JABARNEWS | PANGANDARAN – Susi Pudjiastuti, former Minister of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, is known as a figure who consistently rejects plastic waste. Since serving as minister until his retirement (2014-2019), he could not hide his anger when he saw plastic waste, especially when he saw bottled drinking water (AMDK) packaging.

Susi's anger was visible again when she saw Pangandaran Beach filled with plastic glass waste. Through his social media account, he shared a video showing millions of plastic Aqua glass waste on the beach. Susi even made Istighfar when she saw the sight.

"This morning I want to take my grandchildren to paddle boarding in the sea.. O Allah, forgive Your servants, the trash resulting from the actions of humans who don't care about the environment is scattered around.. Used glasses and bottles of mineral water, food sachets, cups, straws, instant noodles, and all kinds of other plastic waste, millions of pieces collected & stranded all on this beautiful and beautiful Pangandaran Beach.. The storm yesterday afternoon brought a sea of rubbish back to land..

Can all of us as humans, creatures created by God who are said to have the highest IQ & civilization, stop our crimes against the environment?!!!

STOP littering, reduce the use of single-use plastic in our daily lives.. every time you see trash: pick it up, collect it, manage it!! Or we will DRIVE in a sea of our own trash 😡😡😡," wrote Susi in the caption of the video uploaded to X (Twitter) on January 20 2024.

Susi Pudjiastuti's status and video upload was welcomed by netizens and has been watched 118.4 thousand times, Reposted 707 times, and 2,300 Likes, when this upload was monitored on Wednesday, 01/24/2024.

THE OCEAN DOESN'T WANT TO ACCEPT OUR GARBAGE!!!

This morning I want to take my grandchildren to paddle in the sea.. O Allah, forgive Your servants, the trash resulting from the actions of humans who don't care about the environment is scattered around.. Used glasses and bottles of mineral water, food sachets, cups, straws, instant noodles ,… pic.twitter.com/6NIxW99sND

— Susi Pudjiastuti (@susipudjiastuti) January 20, 2024

In the video, Susi bluntly mentions the famous AMDK plastic packaging brand which dominates plastic waste on Pangandaran Beach.

"(There are) various brands of food and drink, millions of Aqua-Aqua glasses, take a look, these are all Aqua glasses," said Susi angrily in the video she shared.

“This is our beautiful beach, Pangandaran. "Come on, we Indonesians stop throwing rubbish carelessly into the river, into the waterways, it's not very good," continued Susi.

Not only did she stand idly by, Susi also mobilized many people to clean Pangandaran Beach.

“It probably won't be done cleaning for a week. "If this afternoon (the storm) comes again, they (the sea, ed.) will definitely return all our rubbish," said Susi concerned.

Susi's discovery at Pangandaran Beach is actually a real example of the rampant waste of plastic cups and other small plastic waste which is difficult to control.

This finding is in line with waste data in Indonesia. Based on data, plastic cups (including straws) and mineral water bottles have contributed to increasing the volume of plastic waste by 11.6 million tonnes, or 17% of the total national waste production in Indonesia in 2021. This amount has doubled from a decade earlier.< /p>

In addition, the production of plastic glass drinking water is recorded at 10.4 billion every year. In this segment, the market leader or ruler of the AMDK market in Indonesia contributes to the generation of 5,300 tons of plastic cup waste per year.

Waste from the AMDK industry also comes from plastic bottles, the production of which reaches 5.5 billion bottles per year. The generation of plastic bottle waste was recorded at 83 thousand tons, or almost half of the plastic waste generation from the AMDK industry. Half of the bottle waste generated is waste from market leader AMDK.

In a Webinar discussion event, Ujang Solihin Sidik, Head of Sub-Directorate for Producer Management at the Ministry of Environment and Forestry's Waste Reduction Directorate, said that based on the Ministry of Environment and Forestry's 2020-2029 Waste Reduction Roadmap, there are indeed a number of small plastic items that are no longer allowed to be produced in 2029. Plastic products whose production must gradually be stopped include small sachet packaging, plastic straws in restaurants, cafes and hotels.

"This includes plastic straws that stick to drinks, and also sytrophoam containers," said Ujang Solihin.

According to him, AMDK producers must also start taking responsibility, for example by taking back plastic bottles for recycling in waste banks.

As is known, the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (KLHK) through Minister of Environment and Forestry Regulation Number 75 of 2019 is targeting a reduction in waste of up to 30 percent by 2030.

This reduction target is carried out by, among other things, encouraging AMDK producers to change the design of mini products to be larger (Size up) to 1 liter size, to make waste management easier.

In addition, producers are also required to implement a responsibility mechanism for products in plastic packaging that are sold, when the product later becomes waste (Extended Producers Responsibility/EPR).

In principle, said Ujang Solihin, there are three binding obligations on producers which are regulated in the Ministry of Environment and Forestry's Road Map. According to him, apart from limiting the generation of waste from their glass and plastic bottle products, producers are also obliged to recycle and reuse products that have been used by consumers.

"Producers have an obligation to take back their bottles to be recycled into bottles or other products and reuse them," said Ujang Solihin.***