9,700 Cigarettes Entering The Jabodetabek River Every Day

Ciliwung River/DOK Setpres

JAKARTA - Researcher of the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) Muhammad Reza Cordova said an average of 9,700 cigarette butts per day enter the river system in Jabodetabek which is a chronic threat to the environment.

"Based on our two researches on the banks of Ciliwung, on the river border and then the total that escaped into Jakarta Bay is more or less, we can estimate that around 6,800 to more than 12,000 cigarette butts enter the river system in Jabodetabek, roughly," he said as quoted by ANTARA, Monday, November 17.

The study shows that although cigarette butts look small, it is because the large amount can burden the environment when disposed of carelessly.

In fact, cigarette butts are consistently included in the top 10 types of waste found in public spaces and the top three types of garbage on land.

He reminded that cigarette butts can become loose pollutants slowly when there is relegation in the ecosystem.

Filters of cigarettes used to filter nicotine content when disposed of without management can release hundreds of microplastic particles into the environment.

"If there is no intervention at the source, this burden will continue to increase and damage the water quality, damage the ecosystem and could become a coastal community," said Reza Cordova, Researcher at the BRIN Oceanography Research Center.

Not only in the Jakarta area and its surroundings, he referred to research by Universitas Brawijaya which found 15 beaches in East Java consisting of tourist, residential and coastal areas that found waste density of 0.08 to 3.32itemper square meters.

"If we can say this is the simplest indicator of the form of chronic pollution. So slowly, this is not incidental," he said.