Rachel Farahdiba R, Jakarta – Divers Clean Action (DCA) founder Swietenia Puspa Lestari stated that fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) producers Unilever, Indofood, and Mayora are the top three contributors to single-use plastic packaging waste pollution in Indonesia. This was obtained from the brand audit program conducted in June 2022 at 11 coastal areas across the archipelago.

She also said the most common types of plastic waste found during the brand audit were single-use plastic sachet packaging accounting for 79.7 percent.

"Sachet packaging waste remains a burden in the environment because it is hard to be recycled. Based on Greenpeace's report titled "Throwing Away the Future", Southeast Asia accounted for almost 50 percent of the global sachet market," said Puspa in a written statement on Friday, July 22, as quoted from teras.id.

She further mentioned a prediction that the number of sachets sold would reach 1.3 million by 2027.

Organizations or community groups that are members of Break Free From Plastic have conducted a brand audit program since 2018. It was revealed that FMCG manufacturers, including Danone and Wings, are the top contributors to packaging waste pollution in the country.

Abdul Ghofar, the urban campaigner from the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), underlined that FMCG producers play a vital role in dealing with the single-use plastic waste crisis.

As stipulated in the Environment and Forestry Ministerial Regulation No. 75/2019 on the roadmap of waste reduction, producers are obliged to set up a roadmap for waste reduction until 2030. However, the public could not access the information on the contents of the roadmap document.

"Transparency from producers regarding their waste reduction roadmap is one of the most important indicators to prove their seriousness and responsibility to overcome the plastic waste crisis," said Ghofar.

Source: https://en.tempo.co/read/1615914/unilever-indofood-and-mayora-top-three-plastic-polluting-firms-dc