KKP Claims BCL Program Successfully Reduce Plastic Waste

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (KKP) claims that the Sea Love Month (BCL) program, which has been running for the past two years, has succeeded in helping Indonesia reduce plastic waste at sea.

The reason is, after the program was implemented, Indonesia's position as the country with the second largest amount of waste in the world has now managed to drop to fifth.

This was conveyed by the Secretary of the Directorate General of Marine Management and Marine Space of the KKP Kusdiantoro in a press conference regarding the performance of the KKP Semester I-2024 in Jakarta, Tuesday, July 30.

"Regarding the management of plastic waste in the sea, this is extraordinary support from the regions. Initially, we only had a target of 12 regencies/cities. Until the first semester of 2024, this has been implemented in 30 districts/cities after we moved this BCL (program) in the last two years," said Kusdiantoro.

Kusdiantoro assessed that the local government's awareness (Pemda) to be involved in cleaning up plastic waste in the sea was extraordinary.

"Initially, from the ministry, yes, centrally. Now more than 50 percent is carried out by regions, budgets from regions. This means that the higher awareness and in terms of this program we succeeded because we had invited regions to be involved in the program," he said.

"And if you look at the data, we used to be in second place regarding the contribution of the largest plastic waste in the world. Now the latest data is in fifth position, it has dropped. And from the ranking side it has also dropped. So, the ranking has increased, the amount of waste has decreased," he added.

However, Kusdiantoro has not been able to provide further information for Indonesia's position until the end of the year. Because the data hasn't come out yet.

Even so, Kusdiantoro is very optimistic that Indonesia can get out of the top 10 positions as the largest contributor to plastic waste in the world.

Bearing in mind, the government through the KKP has carried out various preventive efforts to reduce the amount of plastic waste in the sea.

"Hopefully the 2024 data will come out soon, I will beat too. However, we are optimistic about preventive efforts such as our companies cooperating with mitigating reducing waste. Then, we make it into a circular economy," said Kusdiantoro.

According to him, the average driving force for the community to be involved in the KKP program is young people aged 25-30 years.

"So, this activity not only cleans, but also educates and trains. So, they hope to grow into business actors who create economic value," he added.