Nusantara River Expedition Finds the Threat of Sachet Waste in Upper Brantas

The Brand Audit found sachet waste blocking the flow of the river (27/2)

Nusantara River Expedition or Indonesia River Expedition (IRE)  Activities collaborates with the Water Police conducted a brand audit activity and succeeded in collecting 200 pieces of plastic waste, which were dominated by food wrap sachets.  “We collect and pick up trash that drifts and gets stuck in the Gogor River, a tributary of the Brantas River in Wonosalam, Jombang. We then classify them based on the brands and factories that make these products,” said Arum Wismaningsih, a member of Ecoton, an alumnus of Biology at the University of Jember.

In addition to testing the water quality with biotylics, the water police team together with the IRE team conducted a brand audit and managed to collect 200 pieces of plastic waste, which were dominated by food wrappers, which was held from Sunday to Monday (27-28/2/2022). "Most of the time, we found sachet garbage and stuck in the rocks," said Chelsea Florencia Cantika, a Class VIII student of SMPN 1 Wonosalam who is also a member of the Water Police team. She explained that from the 200 pieces of waste that were collected, 50 percent were from Wings products, including, Kecap Sedap, So Klin, Mie Sedap and Sabun Ekonomi. In addition to Wings products, there are 4 brands or the most brands found to be waste in the Gogor River, the four are Marimas, Unilever, Unicharm which produce mamypoko baby diapers and the fourth is Ajinomoto. 

Terror of Sachet 

50% of the sachet waste found came from PT Wings

"Sachet waste in the river must be controlled because it will gradually break down into microplastics, besides that it will interfere with the view because currently Wonosalam has become one of East Java's tourist destinations," said Amirudin Muttaqin, a senior researcher at Ecoton. This alumnus of UPN Jatim Environmental Engineering encourages the Jombang Regency Government to provide a special trash bin for diaper waste and it is the responsibility of the producer to redesign the packaging so that it can be recycled."So far, it is difficult to recycle sachet waste which is eventually burned and causes dioxin pollution," he said.