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JAKARTA: Indonesia, one of the world’s nations most affected by plastic pollution, will make recycling mandatory for producers, the government has announced in a new move to tackle the crisis, following a ban on shipments of plastic waste from developed countries.

Indonesia produces around 60 million tonnes of waste annually, government data shows, around 12 percent of which is plastic. Less than 10 percent of waste is recycled in the country, while more than half ends up in landfills.

Indonesians are also the top global consumers of microplastics, according to a 2024 study by Cornell University, which estimated that they ingest about 15 grams of plastic particles per month.

“Plastic is problematic for the environment, especially the single-use ones. It creates various problems, and contains hazardous toxic materials,” Environment Minister Hanif Faisol Nurofiq told reporters earlier this week. Nurofiq was speaking after a UN summit in Geneva failed to produce the world’s first legally binding treaty to tackle plastic pollution.

“We are making an intervention through the Extended Producer Responsibility, or EPR, which is still voluntary at the moment, but we are working to make it mandatory.”

The rules of EPR are in place under a 2019 Ministerial Regulation, which requires producers in Indonesia to take full responsibility for the plastic waste generated by their products.

But the mechanism also encourages producers to design environmentally friendly products and packaging, said Muharram Atha Rasyadi, urban campaigner at Greenpeace Southeast Asia.

“EPR is not only about recycling, it’s also about prioritizing reduction schemes from the very start of the production process, including redesigning the products or transitioning to reuse alternatives,” he told Arab News on Wednesday. 

“The producer responsibility scheme should be made into an obligation that needs to be regulated in the management of plastic pollution and waste. If it’s voluntary in nature as we currently have with the 2019 Ministerial Regulation, implementation will be slow and less than ideal.”

As both a major producer and consumer of plastics, Indonesia has poor waste-management practices that has contributed to its plastic pollution problem over the years.

The country of more than 270 million people is the second-largest ocean plastic polluter, just behind China, according to a 2015 study published in the journal Science.

As the government seeks to tackle the crisis by 2029, it started to ban imports of plastic waste on Jan. 1. This comes after years of being among other Southeast Asian nations receiving this plastic scrap from developed countries including the US, UK and Australia.

Indonesia has also introduced measures to reduce single-use plastics, including Bali province’s 2019 ban on single-use plastic bags, straws, and Styrofoam, and a similar one enforced in the capital, Jakarta, in 2020.