“When I was a kid, it was easy to find and catch fish and to see hatchlings of turtles walking around the beach on my way to school,” says Matla’ah, a resident of Gili Indah village on Gili Trawangan, a sun-kissed island popular with divers between the better-known Indonesian islands of Bali and Lombok. For […]
Turning the Tide: How Can Indonesia Close the Loop on Plastic Waste?
Indonesia. Crystal blue waters, palm trees swaying in the wind, endless sandy beaches, lush tropical jungles, towering mountains, lakes, rivers, and more; all are images that may come to mind when you think of Indonesia. But like other Asian countries, Indonesia’s booming development and increased consumption have generated an immense amount of waste, particularly single-use plastics that are leaking into the ocean.
In her conversation with Indonesian journalist Basten Gokkon, the lead article in the
InsightOut publication, Yuniati, a fisherwoman from Sulawesi, somberly reflected, “the plastics we dump now may not impact us today, but will harm the next generation.”