I wasn’t sure how to title this correctly, it took me quite a few minutes to figure out an “attention grabbing” title that would grab your attention, I hope this one does the job. And if the title doesn’t grab your attention, I hope the content will.
This issue may has been discussed a million times before, but I will never get tired of discussing it and at the same time I know that I am screaming helplessly and just witness my beloved country turned into plastic waste bin.
[caption id="attachment_181611" align="alignleft" width="500" caption="The new trend for Indonesian family"][/caption]
It is truly unfortunate that most Indonesians are so unlucky with their unhygienic tap water resources, for this reason the majority of the nation will turn to mineral water in bottles or cups. Look at the image above. Who doesn’t know or hasn’t tried this mineral water in the plastic cup, in Indonesia? Don’t tell me that you haven’t got a selection of these cups on the coffee table in your sitting room or your office? I think a lot of Indonesians probably believe that consuming mineral water from these cups is the “latest trend”. They are being served in government parties, Lebaran, Christmas, Wedding, Funerals, Sunatan.....oh...you name it they will have them there. These cups have replaced those nice drinking glasses we used to serve people with traditional Indonesian teas and coffees.Indonesian homes don’t do teas and coffees any more, do they?They no longer understand how to boil water from the tap. Indonesians are now so busy, they no longer have time to do the washing-up either (cuci piring), Yang benar!!!!, hence their admiration for the disposable cups.
I could imagine some of you are rolling your eyes in disapproval. If you are not the part of the “trendy gang”, then good for you, you are part of the sensible gang, like me. Congratulations.
I remember when mineral water in bottles first hit Indonesia, they were only available in glass bottles (not plastic ones). Over the years the mineral water companies got more adventurous and innovative in their packaging, perhaps part of the reasons for it is for easy transportation as plastic bottles are a lot lighter and easier to manage, and above all cheaper.In the past, buying mineral water in a bottle required money and an empty bottle as a security, or if you didn’t have an empty bottle with you, you would have to leave some money for the deposit, for the bottle that is, not for the water. I think the same applied to other drinking products in bottles such as Coca Cola, Beer, etc. Today, most of bottled drinks come in plastic bottles, so when the consumer finished with the content, the bottles will be disposed of casually in the way they fancy, and the most common disposal strategy is by dropping it on the ground around them. Easy.....just like that!!
Now, this new trend of consuming mineral water from the cups has hit every part of the society in this country, rich or poor. Serving this type of drink is easy, just spread them out in their boxes, and leave the consumers (drinkers) to deal with the rest, including the waste created by them. However many of our Indonesian consumers are so good at consuming what they could swallow and what they couldn’t swallow will be disposed of as they wish, no matter how horrific the impact of this disposal may be to the environment and to their health. Empty cups or worst still, half empty (with some water still left in it), are just scattered in the fields. If no one deals with this litter, the cups will be there for many more years to come. Cups which are empty will get filled up slowly by rain water and become trendy homes for mosquitoes for breading malaria.
The health hazard is so horrendous; obviously Malaria would continue to be the unbeatable health problem in this country. The Indonesian authorities don’t want to know, they don’t care, they don’t provide health service here for you, so if you are ill, tough!!! you are solely responsible for your own well-being.
[caption id="attachment_181612" align="alignleft" width="700" caption="Sampah oh sampah "]
The above was taken in back yard of a government official building (Kantor Kecamatan) in North Sumatra, near Lake Toba. Littering is horrendous in this part of the world, is hard to believe how plastic waste could be so accumulated here.People love plastic so much, they never had enough of it.In the 1970s and 80s tourism around Lake Toba was so great, almost equal to Bali, but now the place looksdeserted and the environment looks screaming for help
Talking about plastic waste in Indonesia, I could be here forever, perhaps one day I should just write a really controversial book about it, and gain....nah...don’t think so, I can imagine people won’t probably buy it.Enough of plastic waste for now, I think I’d better get myself ready for some Friday night fun.
Take good care of yourself and your family, don’t have malaria and don’t give it to others either.Buanglah sampah pada tempatnya!!!!
