Anyone who has visited Indonesia will know that the country is plagued by a garbage problem. It is thrown into rivers, blocking drains and causing flooding. Single use plastic is burnt in neighbourhoods, filling the air with acrid smoke. Thousands of tons of kitchen waste, rotten fruit from wet markets and coconut husks are thrown into garbage containers where they are rapidly filling up the city dump. You walk down the street and inhale the smoke, you swim in the sea and fight with plastic bags and you watch people sort through the garbage containers searching for plastic that has a resale value. Sadly, after a while you stop seeing it in all its horror, you become numb to it.

So what can be done? There are solutions to some of these problems which SEEDS partner Yayasan Perahu Nusantara is advocating for:

Reduce single use plastic. Many parts of the world have a ban on plastic bags. Creating and enforcing regulations that ban single use plastic and incentivising environmentally friendly bags are the way forward.

Recycle. Plastics, cardboard, glass that have a resale/recycle value are already being collected by entrepreneurial men and women.

Organic waste. This needs to be separated at source and turned into compost, biogas, coconut husk mats and other products.

This is a massive problem that requires political will, commitment at the grass-roots and innovative solutions. Yayasan Perahu Nusantara has a part to play in mobilising communities and trialling innovation. Watch this space over the coming years for updates.