Aiming for A World Where Everything Is Circular: Q&A with Indonesia Plastic Bag Diet Cofounder Tiza Mafira
“What bothers me is that people tend to look at these rivers and these polluted beaches and think ‘somebody needs to clean it up’ that’s just completely wrong. Because not only is it almost impossible and inefficient, but it’s really not the solution. The solution is prevention,” says Tiza Mafira in the film, Story of Plastic, as she takes a boat trip down the polluted Ci Liwung River that flows through Indonesia’s capital city, Jakarta.
A recent Wageningen University study found that the Ci Liwung River is among the most polluted rivers in the world. The Dutch and Indonesian scientists estimate that 20,000 pieces of plastic waste flow from the river into the ocean per hour. The study also calculated that the annual plastic emissions from the Ci Liwung and the other 12 rivers in Jakarta total 2.1 million kilograms, equal to the weight of 1,000 Tesla Model S cars.