City Government Issues SE Prohibition Of Supermarkets For Plastic Bags, Starting To Apply In 2025

Illustration of disposable plastic waste. (Pixabay)

KALBAR - Pontianak City Government in West Kalimantan (West Kalimantan) issued Mayor Circular (SE) Number 43 of 2024 concerning Prohibition of Providing Plastic Bags by Business Actors.

The Mayor of Pontianak, Ani Sofian said the SE was in order to reduce plastic waste.

"The SE is central and continues to be socialized. SE is in line with Mayor Regulation (Perwa) Number 06 of 2019 concerning the Reduction of the Use of Plastic Bags," he said in Pontianak, Wednesday, September 25, which was confiscated by Antara.

He explained, the implementation of the ban on plastic bags itself will take effect on January 1, 2025. So that currently, socialization to business actors continues to be intensified by the ban.

"The existing ban is due to the high amount of waste arising in Pontianak City. This can cause problems if the right prevention, reduction and handling are not carried out," he explained.

He said, based on data from the National Waste Management Information System (SIPSN), Pontianak City produced 441.88 tons of waste per day in 2023. Currently, the reduction in waste in the community has only reached 25.06 percent of the realization. So it is necessary to accelerate to achieve the target set by 2025.

Based on this regulation, Pontianak City has a waste management target in 2025, which is 70 percent of waste management carried out by the government and 30 reductions in waste carried out by the community.

"So it is necessary to collaborate between the government, society, organization, community, parties and others to accelerate the realization of the Pontianak City mission and target by 2025," he said.

Meanwhile, Head of the Pontianak City Environment Agency (DLH) Syarif Usmulyono said that in order to achieve this goal, his party would launch the Pontianak City Movement without Plastic Bags which is planned to be held on October 13, 2024.

In 2026, the construction of the final disposal site (TPA) must also be stopped and replaced with an integrated waste disposal site (TPST) in 2030, which is a place to manage until the final processing of waste, so it is safe to be returned to the environmental media.

"This activity aims to accelerate the achievement of the target of reducing plastic bag waste in Pontianak City and making Pontianak City a clean, green, safe, orderly and sustainable city and creating environmentally friendly people," he explained.

When the campaign starts, retail businesses must put up banners on the bit link.ly/pontianak are free of plastic in 2024. The cost of installing banners is borne by each business actor. Retail, shopping centers, business actors and the like are allowed to open booths on condition that they do not provide single-use plastic bags, offer programs such as price cuts if they bring bags for re-use, or the like, which can be adjusted to the ability of business actors.

"It is committed to running the Pontianak City Movement without Plastic Bags starting January 1, 2025, every retailer, shopping center, business actor and the like do not provide single-use plastic bags," he said.