Saset Becomes the Biggest Contributor of Plastic Waste in Indonesia

JAKARTA – Sasets are plastic waste most of which pollute the environment. The results of the brand audit of the environmental activist community network consisting of Greenpeace Indonesia, Ecoton, Walhi, Trash Hero Indonesia, and YPBB, show that many sachet producers pollute the environment.

Greenpeace Indonesia Plastics Project Leader Ibar Akbar said that until now there has been no transparency and commitment from these producers to reduce the production of plastic sachets. “If producers continue to use this method, the sachet crisis will not end,” said Ibar, Thursday (2/5/2024).

The responsibility of producers for waste and specifically regarding sachets is stated in the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (LHK) Regulation Number 75 of 2019 concerning Roadmap for Waste Reduction by Producers. This regulation requires manufacturers, one of which is manufacturing, to create a road map for reducing waste from packaging by 30% until 2029.

Ecoton Audit Coordinator Alaika Rahmatullah said that the level of public concern about plastic waste, especially sachet packaging, would deepen with the findings of this sachet brand audit.

“Especially when the names of the same producers keep appearing again, it shows a disturbing paradox. Not only looking at the numbers, but also about how responsible the producers are for the environmental impact of their business activities,” he said.

He hopes that the findings of this audit are important to use as an evaluation to consider steps taken by producers to be more responsible in the future, especially by no longer using sachet packaging.

Trash Hero Indonesia Coordinator Rima Putri Agustina revealed that their volunteer network in Eastern Indonesia, namely East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) and Ambon, also found sachets to be the biggest waste of plastic in the activities they carried out.

He said that the eastern region of Indonesia is a geography that is vulnerable to plastic pollution because it consists of many small islands, with limited waste collection services in some areas, especially in the district capital areas.

According to him, the case of Eastern Indonesia is a clear illustration that the problems caused by sachets cannot be left to local governments and consumers alone, but must be the responsibility of producers.