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The amount of household plastic waste and medical waste increase during COVID-19 pandemic

08 June 2020 09:05

JAKARTA - Household plastic waste and medical waste increased during the COVID-19-19 pandemic. Therefore, the government will continue to promote the Clean Up Indonesia Movement (GIB) to solve this problem.

Acting Deputy for Environmental Management and Forestry, Nani Hendiarti said that a number of ministries are working to solve this problem. "Due to the work from home policy, orders for take-aways, which are usually packed in plastic, have increased," she said in a press release quoted on Monday (8/6).

Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) notes that the amount of household plastic waste increased from 1-5 grams per day per person to 5-10 grams during the COVID-19 outbreak. In addition, the Ministry of Environment and Forestry noted that the current amount of medical waste is 290 tons per day, 50% of them are related to COVID-19. Meanwhile, the total medical waste management capacity in Indonesia is 170 tons per day.

"It means there is a gap. Late, we will work with KLHK to solve this problem. Encouraging for the development of incinerators that can burn medical waste so they will not affect the environment, "he said. (LK/AR)

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