Have you ever thought that the plastic garbage you carelessly dispose of on the streets could return to your stomachs? It may sound like nonsense, but the fact is 鈥� according to recent research 鈥� street litter is swept by rainwater into rivers and seas, where the fish that you eat live.
Arifsyah Nasution, an oceans campaigner from the environmental organization Greenpeace Indonesia, said according to the research, the accumulation of plastic particles in fishes鈥� bodies has increased due to the increase in volume of plastic waste in oceans.
鈥淧lastic pollution is very critical nowadays because the plastic particles have already entered the food chain,鈥� Arifsyah told聽The Jakarta Post聽on Saturday, adding that Indonesia was second only to China as the largest contributor of plastic garbage in oceans every year.
Yearly, almost 1.3 million tons of plastic garbage originates from the Indonesian archipelago, with around four percent of it coming from the city of Jakarta, considered by Arifsyah to be a significant number.
He, therefore, called on Jakarta citizens to wisely organize waste by sorting out the plastic garbage before submitting it to garbage banks in the city so that it could be recycled into useful things such as handicrafts.
Arifsyah was speaking at an event, Festival Laut (Sea Festival), held annually by Greenpeace Indonesia to raise Jakartans鈥� awareness of sea sustainability.
Visitors at the event conducted at Krida Loka Park in South Jakarta learned from participating communities about topics relating to the protection of the sea.
Terangi community, whose concern is about coral reefs鈥� safety, volunteer Intan Destianis Hartati said many people were not aware that reefs were very fragile and easily broken.
鈥淭he coral reefs can break simply by being kicked by divers鈥� feet,鈥� Intan said, adding that the community has been incessantly voicing the importance of protecting coral reefs 鈥� the sea鈥檚 biota 鈥� at schools across the country since 1999.
Greenpeace Indonesia and several of the communities that participated in the sea festival had also committed to making oceans free from plastic garbage through the #BreakFreeFromPlastic movement, which was discussed at the event.
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