'Fengly Jelly', Pakan Alternatif Larva Ikan lele .

As many as 400 million tons of plastic are produced worldwide annually for various purposes, including as a wrapping material because it is lightweight and functional. This was quoted from a report by the World Economic Forum entitled White Paper on Plastics Circular Economy and Global Trade published in July 2020. Unfortunately, most of the plastic ends up as waste and has the potential to damage the environment, including in waters.

The World Economic Forum explained that there are around 150 million tons of plastic waste in the world's waters. The percentage level of waste continues to increase, reaching 8 million tons per year.

The International Coastal Cleanup (ICC) released that in 2019 as many as 97,457,984 types of garbage with a total weight of 10,584,041 kilograms were found in the sea. Nine of the 10 most common types of waste they found came from plastic materials, such as straws and stirrers, plastic cutlery, plastic drinking bottles, plastic cups, and bags.

The existence of this plastic waste threatens marine life, at least 800 species. This was revealed from the results of research published by the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (United Nations Convention On Biological Diversity) in 2016. As many as 40 percent are marine mammals and 44 percent are seabird species.

The data was then updated at the United Nations Ocean Conference at the New York Office, United States in 2017. The conference stated that plastic waste in the oceans has killed 1 million seabirds, 100,000 marine mammals, sea turtles, and fish in large numbers. big every year.

Flexible plastics, such as plastic sheets, bags, and packaging can cause intestinal blockages and infections. Sometimes this leads to the death of mainly cetacean species (such as whales and dolphins) and turtles.

Plastic waste in the oceans is also a problem for Indonesia. We certainly still remember the discovery of the carcass of a sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) in the waters of Kapota Island, Wakatobi National Park, Southeast Sulawesi, November 18, 2018. The carcass of another fish named boxhead whale was then necropsied. The result was surprising because from his stomach were found hundreds of various types of plastic waste weighing a total of 5.9 kilograms.

These included 1,000 pieces of rapia rope, used plastic cups of 350 ml bottled drinking water (115 pieces), and plastic bags (25 pieces). There was also a pair of flip-flops found in the stomach of the nearly 10-meter-sized sperm whale. The findings show how dangerous the impact of plastic waste is to cause the death of a sperm whale, one of the largest aquatic mammals on Earth.

This finding is in line with the results of research by the World Wild Fund (WWF) Indonesia which states that as many as 25 percent of marine fish species contain microplastic materials. Of course the material comes from plastic waste in the ocean. Microplastics are plastic particles less than 5 mm in size and can be consumed by plankton, one of the main foods of fish.

This condition can occur because every year the Indonesian sea is estimated to receive shipments from land of 70-80 percent of plastic waste used for human consumption. The amount is between 480 thousand-1.29 million tons of plastic waste from a total of 3.22 million tons of waste that enters the sea and coast. This was stated by a marine microbiology researcher from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) Oceanography Research Center (LIPI) Ariani Hatmanti at the International Conference on the Ocean and Earth Sciences (ICOES) seminar, which was held online in Jakarta, 19 November 2020.

In Indonesia, waste management is starting to be taken seriously. President Joko Widodo has issued a policy, Presidential Regulation number 83 of 2018 concerning the Handling of Marine Debris. In the regulation, there is a national action plan (RAN) for handling plastic waste in the sea in 2018-2025.

The target is to reduce plastic waste in the ocean by 70 percent by 2025. One of the efforts is to activate the National Plastic Action Partnership (NPAP). The partnership is a world first and confirms that Indonesia is committed to reducing the production of plastic waste.

Efforts to reduce plastic waste in the sea must be carried out in an integrated manner at the national, regional and global scope. Mainly through the reduction of waste originating from activities on land. Indonesia is now on the right track in an effort to reduce the production of plastic waste in the ocean by starting from land.

The Indonesian government also involves the private sector for the implementation of NPWP through the Plastic Recovery Organization (PRO) forum.

Six major Indonesian companies joined, such as PT Coca-Cola Indonesia, PT Danone Indonesia, PT Indofood Sukses Makmur Tbk, PT Nestle Indonesia, Tetra Pak Indonesia, and PT Unilever Indonesia Tbk. The PRO program has been running in Surabaya (East Java) and Bali since 2020.

The collaboration is in the form of processing plastic materials from used packaging and combining them with new plastic materials that will be used for new packaging. This effort is part of the industry's concern in overcoming the waste problem.

Coca Cola Indonesia (CCI) coincided with the 2021 National Waste Handling Day (HPSN), Sunday (21/2/2021) launching Sprites in clear plastic bottles. This is a breakthrough because since 1971 the bottle of carbonated drinks produced by CCI is identical to the green color. 

Unilever Indonesia has also redesigned the packaging of their products to reduce plastic materials. Among them are thinning plastic packaging and shortening the shape of the bottle and using recycled plastic as packaging material.

Hopefully all the efforts mentioned above are able to reduce plastic waste in the sea and preserve the biota in and around it. In addition, so that marine biota such as fish are still safe for public consumption because they are no longer contaminated with microplastics.

The waste management steps taken by Indonesia can be a reference for other countries in the world to jointly deal with waste. Without us realizing it, the problem of garbage in the sea has become a disaster that will slowly cause great damage to the destruction of marine ecosystems as a source of human life, and will have a major impact on humans themselves. Let's be aware, starting from our family and environment. We must not be silent, small steps will have a big impact when done together on the garbage that pollutes our seas.(*)