One City One Voice (Jakarta)

Institution: Sekolah Alam Indonesia (Indonesia Nature School)

Project Member: Thoriq Yahya & Zahra Maharani

Project Partner:

Bye Bye Plastic Bags (http://www.byebyeplasticbags.org)
Trash Hero Jakarta (https://trashhero.org)
Sekolah Alam Indonesia - Indonesia Nature School (http://sekolahalamindonesia.org)
Jakarta Deputy of Culture and Tourism (https://jakarta.go.id)
Department of Environment, Department of Education, and Department of City Planning (of Jakarta)

(Picture: with the government of Jakarta)

Indonesia is the second largest country that contributes plastics to the ocean. Plastic is something we cannot live without. Plastic bags, plastic straws, plastic wraps. We are a society that has become highly dependent on plastic. It is incredibly easy to make and we have an almost unlimited supply. That’s the pattern we have adapted to, but plastic is not a material that the earth can digest.

One City One Voice (OCOV) is a movement driven by the youth to say no to a single-use plastic. In Bali, we held the Indonesia biggest cleanup consisting 120 cleanup areas, 20.000 participants, and 55 tonnes of waste collected. By May, we are planning to visit 100 schools to educate the students by giving them presentation and booklets as one of our education programs.

We are currently running a petition to demand the Jakarta Government assertiveness to plastic waste as well as adding tax to plastic bags in mini markets and we have collected 40.000 signs by April.

OCOV plans to make schools affiliated with BBPBJ to be plastic bags free by the end of 2018 and so far we have 1 plastic-free school. We hope that we can work with the government to secure stricter policies regarding plastic waste.

Bye Bye Plastic Bags Jakarta (BBPBJ) is an NGO driven by the youth to get the people of Jakarta to say no to a single use plastic. Our team in Bali works with the Bali government and they announce their commitment to make Bali plastic bags free by the end of 2018.

Our BBPBJ Jakarta team during a youth conference in the National Library of Indonesia.

A picture of me, Thoriq Yahya, and my project partner, Zahra Maharani.

Here is our project timeline (we started the campaign on April 2018). Check out our Instagram page @byebyeplasticbagsjakarta to see more of our progress.