Raising Awareness of Plastic Waste: BNF Brings Together Superstore on the Earth Day 2018 to End Plastic Pollution

The 2018’s Earth Day campaign urges people around the globe to protect the environment through eco-friendly lifestyles. This annual event was focusing on reducing plastic use that has put the world under threat.

How can a plastic waste harm our planetary home? Many studies have been carried out to find out the life-cycle effects of the plastic waste on the environment. The finding of those studies has agreed upon one result which is an extremely little chance for bags, straws, bottles, or any plastic-made materials to be naturally broken down.

After used, many of these plastic wastes become the litter we could find on streets, sidewalks, housings, beaches, and worst; forest and oceans. On television and social media, we were recently hit by the fact that the huge number of plastic waste dumped in the oceans have become the major threat to the marine life as the animals mistake those wastes as foods.
Considering the serious problem above, Borneo Nature Foundation (BNF) initiated the first ever event themed End Plastic Pollution Campaign in Hypermart Palangkaraya, a local supermarket and department store (superstore), on Sunday 22 April 2018.

BNF was also supported by MAPALA Sylva Raya (the Student Association for Environmental and Adventure Activity) from University of Palangkaraya and some students of Muhammadiyah University of Palangkaraya who also got involved in the event.

Early in the morning, BNF took a part in the Earth Day Campaign that was held at car-free day area in Bundaran Besar Palangkaraya (big roundabout) led by the students with the oration regarding the importance of saving and protecting the environment. There was also the distribution of 2,500 tree seedlings by the Central Management of Regional River Flow (shortly abbreviated as BPDAS) Kahayan that were given for free to the public.

“We sponsored 10 species of the tree seedlings, most of these are forest trees but we also give public the seedling for fruit trees. The event is so positive, so we are looking forward to the same activity in the upcoming event” said BPDAS representative.

In the afternoon, BNF moved to Hypermart for the main event. The idea of choosing the Hypermart as the place to socialize the campaign is because it is one of the largest distributors of the plastic-made materials. Barely have we found the customers bring their own eco-friendly bag to put some goods while shopping.

“This event is a good opportunity to educate the customers to increase the awareness of the plastic use. As you can see, most of the customers even request to have double plastic bags for the goods they buy” said Roni, the Store Manager of Hypermart.

BNF was given a booth in the corner nearby the cashier where most of the transaction carried out at the store. BNF Team started the event by playing the video about plastic pollution issues. After doing the transactions, some customers came to the booth to see the video and asked several questions regarding what they could do to take a part in saving the contaminated planet.

To attract the customers, the team also introduced the ‘Plastic Monster’. It was one of the BNF scientists who volunteered himself in the plastic bags costume. The Plastic Monster walked around the store with the student groups to offer an exchange of the eco-friendly bags made of the unused banner to plastic bags brought by customers after transactions. The customers were all happy with this fun way of celebrating the earth day. They were all interested in changing the bags with our hand-made products.

There was also a presentation by BNF representative. In the presentation, BNF staff shared about the 3R’s concept for the plastic waste; reducing, reusing, and recycling. Considering the fact of plastic pollution, it’s high alert to raise the public awareness for reducing the plastic use. Some news reports have written that Indonesia becomes one of the largest waste contributors. The wastes dumped in the ocean have threatened the coral reefs by which 70% are household waste.
When the waste becomes uncontrolled, it’s important that the public knows on how to reuse and recycle the plastic waste instead of leaving them floated in the ocean and mountains in the waste facilities. By transforming the plastic wastes into new goods, it can help save the environment from the threat and moreover create new economic opportunities.

BNF hopes that this event can inspire people to shift into eco-friendly lifestyles. There are many things that people can do to save the planet; one of them is to get rid of the plastic waste.

Therefore, let’s save the planet by living wisely close to nature and take the actions to stop the plastic waste! (AE)