There Is A Plastic Waste Problem Behind Online Shopping Habits During The Pandemic

Illustration of landfills (Pixabay)

JAKARTA - The COVID-19 pandemic makes most people currently reluctant to leave the house. In addition, the government has encouraged people to study and work from home. So, in this kind of situation, it is not surprising that the percentage of online shopping and delivery services is increasing.

Oceanographic Research and the Population Research Center of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) said that in the midst of a pandemic and the large-scale social restrictions (PSBB) policy, online shopping and delivery services have increased dramatically.

If people usually shop online one to five times a month, in the current PSBB era, people can shop online ten times per month.

However, not many people realize that the increase in online shopping activities has created a new problem, namely the accumulation of plastic waste in the Jabodetabek area. Given that almost all the groceries sent are wrapped in thick plastic.

"(As many as) 96 percent of packages are wrapped in thick plastic and added with bubble wrap, tape, plastic wrap. And bubble wrap is the most common plastic wrap," said researcher of the LIPI Oceanography Research Center, Intan Suci Nurhayati, as quoted from the website. the agency's official on Monday, May 25.

The survey, which was conducted in the Jabodetabek area from April 20 to May 5, even noted that the amount of plastic waste from package wrappers outperformed the amount of plastic waste from packaging products.

The results of the survey also showed that as many as 60 percent of respondents considered the use of plastic did not reduce the risk of being exposed to COVID-19. This, he said, is also in accordance with their research which states that the corona virus can survive on plastic surfaces for three days or longer than other surfaces such as cardboard.

In fact, said Intan, the results of this survey show that public awareness of the issue of plastic waste is so high. "However, public awareness has not been accompanied by real action," he said.

"Only half of the residents sort their waste for recycling. This has the potential to increase plastic waste and increase the burden on landfills during PSBB or WFH (work from home)," added this researcher.

So, he invited the public to be able to reduce plastic waste during work at home activities. This is done by supporting sellers and products without plastic packaging, asking sellers to reduce plastic packaging, buying goods in large packages, compiling various grocery lists in one purchase, reusing plastic packaging that has been cleaned, and sorting plastic waste for recycling.

In addition, people can also give goods from a shop that is actually closer to where they live compared to online shopping. It aims to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

"There is U in SOL-U-TION. Let's together reduce plastic waste in online shopping."