Jakarta – Tangerang Mayor Arief R. Wismansyah has urged people to bring their own tumblers to school or work instead of buying plastic water bottles, in an attempt to reduce plastic waste.
Arief said he wanted all classrooms to have water dispensers so that students could fill up their own tumblers with drinking water.
"The environment agency is designing [the regulation]. They [schools] have made waste banks. So [the garbage in the waste bank] is bartered for water gallons. Therefore, children can bring their own tumblers to school," Arief said as quoted by kompas.com on Thursday.
Arief said he had implemented a plastic reduction policy in his office. "In the office, we have issued a plastic bottle ban. So if we go to a meeting we have to bring our own tumbler," Arief said.
A plastic water bottle ban has yet to be made official through a mayoral regulation. "We have to start with an introduction. If the regulation is implemented, we can then punish the violators," Arief said. (gis)