{"id":7142,"date":"2025-06-30T12:12:19","date_gmt":"2025-06-30T12:12:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/berdayahub.com\/?p=7142"},"modified":"2025-06-30T12:12:20","modified_gmt":"2025-06-30T12:12:20","slug":"trash-talk-from-waste-to-wisdom-can-education-be-the-compass-in-indonesias-waste-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/berdayahub.com\/id\/trash-talk-from-waste-to-wisdom-can-education-be-the-compass-in-indonesias-waste-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"Trash Talk: From Waste to Wisdom, Can Education Be the Compass in Indonesia\u2019s Waste Crisis?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tEvery morning, I wake up to the same sounds that millions of others in Jakarta hear such as honking traffic, sweeping brooms, and somewhere underneath it all, the silent, steady piling of trash. \t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tIt\u2019s not just on the streets. It\u2019s in our rivers, buried beneath our beaches, and floating alongside our ferry rides. From the once-pristine shores of Bali, now shadowed by drifting debris, to the Citarum River, once dubbed the most polluted river in the world, our waste problem is not just about garbage. It is about how we live, what we value, and what we choose to ignore.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLet us be real. Indonesia has a massive trash problem, and we all see it. According to the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, the country generated 68.5 million tons of waste in 2022, and only about 17.5% was recycled (ANTARA News, 2023). \t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe rest? It either piles up in overflowing landfills, gets burned in open air (especially in rural areas), or worse, it flows directly into our rivers and seas. Plastic clogs our waterways, causing flooding and damaging marine ecosystems. \t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tIn 2017, Indonesia committed to reducing marine plastic waste by 70% by 2025, and the National Waste Management Policy (Jakstranas) was launched to support this (World Bank, 2021). \t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSome local governments are taking bold steps too, Bali banned single-use plastics in 2019 (Bali Provincial Government, 2019), and Surabaya runs one of the most effective waste-to-energy programs in the country (UNEP, 2021). These policies matter. But they are not enough.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBecause let\u2019s be honest: you can clean a river with just a policy. And you can\u2019t fix a landfill with a single ban.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSo what can we do? I believe the real game-changer is education.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Why Is Trash Taking Over?<\/b><\/h2>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tI see it every day. Plastic bottles floating down gutters. Food wrappers tucked behind trees. Overflowing bins that never seem to get emptied. It is easy to point fingers at the government or big industries. But if I am being honest? We\u2019re all part of the problem.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWe toss things out without a second thought. I\u2019ve seen it happen at the market, even in schools. Is this recyclable? Can this be composted? What happens if I mix it all together? Most people don\u2019t know. And it\u2019s not because they don\u2019t care, it\u2019s because no one ever taught them. That\u2019s where I believe change has to begin. Not with more cleanup drives or another “no plastic bag” sign at the store but with education. Real, transformative, consistent education.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tIf we want lasting change, we need to start young. Children today are growing up in a country overwhelmed by waste. But they also hold the power to reverse it, if we give them the tools. And some schools are already showing what\u2019s possible.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDuring my recent research, I came across a remarkable school in East Java that\u2019s actively implementing the Adiwiyata program, a national initiative launched by Indonesia\u2019s Ministry of Environment and Forestry to integrate environmental education into school culture and curriculum. \t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWhat struck me most was how deeply embedded sustainability had become in the students\u2019 daily lives. They don\u2019t just learn about waste management, they practice it. In the school I observed, students compost leftover food from the canteen, sort waste into color-coded bins, and bring their own reusable lunch kits. \t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTheir learning environment isn\u2019t limited to four walls; it spills into organic gardens, waste banks, and collaborative clean-up projects with the surrounding community. These practices are not isolated efforts, they\u2019re part of a growing movement to raise a generation of environmentally literate citizens (Aqilah & Lathifah, 2023; Nurwaqidah et al., 2020).\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAdditionally, I came across a powerful case study from Bali that deeply resonated with me, the Plastic Exchange program. This initiative, launched in May 2020 by social entrepreneur I Made Janur Yasa in Tabanan, exemplifies how environmental and socio-economic challenges can be tackled simultaneously through grassroots innovation.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe program was developed at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when Bali faced not only a rising plastic waste crisis but also widespread economic hardship due to the collapse of its tourism industry (Indonesia Expat, 2021; CNA, 2021). \t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWhat struck me about this initiative was its simplicity and impact: residents collect and sort plastic waste, which is then exchanged for rice. This approach doesn’t just encourage better waste management, it restores a sense of dignity and purpose to those participating. \t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThrough my study, it became clear that the Plastic Exchange program serves as more than just an environmental solution; it is a community-driven model that addresses immediate human needs while fostering long-term behavioral change.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWhen waste education becomes more than just a one-day seminar, when it becomes a part of daily learning, it rewires the way kids think. It becomes normal to say no to single-use plastics. It becomes instinctive to sort food waste from plastic wrap. And here\u2019s the magic: kids take these lessons home. I\u2019ve seen students teach their parents how to recycle, or ask shop owners to skip plastic bags. One child can shift an entire household. Multiply that by thousands? You get a movement.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tImagine if every school in Indonesia integrated practical, hands-on waste education into their core subjects. Imagine if environmental literacy became just as essential as math or Bahasa Indonesia. It\u2019s already starting. \t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tUnder the National Waste Management Strategy (Jakstranas), Indonesia has set ambitious targets to reduce waste by 30% and manage 70% of waste by 2025 (Government of Indonesia, 2017). \t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBut these goals will only be met if we stop treating trash as someone else\u2019s problem and start building a generation that understands how their daily choices shape the world around them.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Every morning, I wake up to the same sounds that millions of others in Jakarta hear such as honking traffic, sweeping brooms, and somewhere underneath it all, the silent, steady…<\/p>","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":7152,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[53,58,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community-submission","category-economic-empowerment","category-environment"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/berdayahub.com\/id\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/berdayahub.com\/id\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/berdayahub.com\/id\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/berdayahub.com\/id\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/berdayahub.com\/id\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7142"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/berdayahub.com\/id\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7142\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7156,"href":"https:\/\/berdayahub.com\/id\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7142\/revisions\/7156"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/berdayahub.com\/id\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/berdayahub.com\/id\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/berdayahub.com\/id\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/berdayahub.com\/id\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}