Contributor of

Plastic Waste

Plastic is kind of disturbing waste. The global community and Indonesian community are restless. The existence and number of plastics in the world are so excessive and worrying. Plastic waste is hard to decomposed while its usage is increasing rapidly day by day. Some people use plastic as life support tools, such as kitchen utensils, school kits, office kits, and many more.

Concerning about it, Stube-HEMAT and students in Bengkulu held a discussion and tried to respond the current issue of plastic waste in Bengkulu. It was held on Tuesday, December 18, 2018 at 7:30 PM at Kenrich Cafe, UNIB Belakang, area of Kandang Limun, Bengkulu. Eleven students from various majors attended the discussion.

The discussion was opened by introducing Stube-HEMAT because not all the participants know what Stube-HEMAT is. They discussed the booming of plastic waste in Bengkulu. According to one participant of the discussion, a journalistics student, garbage problem on Bengkulu coast was reaching 2 tons of plastic waste. The garbage itself was collected from the beach side only. So you can imagine how much garbage if all plastic waste in Bengkulu is collected.

Hosani Ramos Hutapea led the discussion. She tried to accommodate participants’ opinions and ideas. Regarding to plastic waste, they began to realize and gradually reduce plastic. One simple things is avoiding plastic bag whenever go shopping. If you buy something little, reuse the plastic that is still feasible for it. Also, efficient use of plastic can be done by collecting plastics and then giving them to sellers.

Beside the example, a question arose "what about plastic waste that cannot be reused?" If the plastic cannot be reused, it will definitely be wasted, if it is put on the ground and buried, it will damage the soil. If the plastic is burnt it will become air pollutant.

From the question, the participants said that recycling is needed. One participant from department of chemistry said that processing plastic waste has been carried out with the aim that the smelting will be used as fuel. But this project has not found a final result because there are obstacles regarding the octane level contained in the processing results that have not been detected. It means that the products cannot be used yet.

At the end of the discussion, participants were given a paper to write their responses about plastic waste and also their suggestions about the discussion. One feedback is an expectation for a further discussion which brings a real solution and not just discourse. Let's proceed!