Littering in Indonesia
Littering is a condition where people usually throw something in the form of rubbish in a place that is not actually the place for it. For example, throw rubbish into the river. Actually, littering is bad behavior. Littering itself has a lot of negative impacts. But, many Indonesian people often do littering. They do littering not only at the park or other places. Even on the street or on the toll road, when they are in the car, they can do littering.
In Indonesia, specifically in public places, for example, a park, shopping centers, and also schools, there are a lot of signs to put rubbish in the right place. At school, we also got educated about the importance of throwing rubbish in the right place, where it can reduce water pollution, and also make ourselves become healthy. As we know, rubbish is something that is not healthy. So, if we put it carelessly, it can also affect our health condition. An embarrassing moment is when French people help Indonesia to clean one of the rivers in Indonesia, which is the Citarum River located in West Java. Other than that, in Indonesia, there are also a lot of rubbish bins. So, actually, if Indonesian people want, they can put their rubbish in a right place. But, the question is, why do they choose to not do it?
A sociologist from UNS (Universitas Sebelas Maret), one of the universities in Indonesia said that many Indonesian people think that rubbish is not an important thing to be taken care of. For me, I think Indonesian people are too lazy to walk to the rubbish bin and put their trash in it. Furthermore, they also think that putting rubbish in the right place is not their job, but it is someone’s job who got paid by the government or by the boss in some places. Besides that, the penalty for someone who do littering is not effective because sometimes the punishment itself is not enforced properly.
“Later the workers will clean it.” said 1,000 Indonesian people in public places.
There are some solutions to this problem. The simple thing to do is to admonish people who do littering. The next thing that we can do is to make a campaign about the negative sides of littering. The last thing is to focus on building characters in order to make people have the right thoughts about littering. So, they can know things that they have to do if they have rubbish in their hand. In addition, building someone’s character can be done at school, in society, or in the family.
In conclusion, littering is a problem that can lead to water pollution and can make human health become threatened. Many Indonesian people often do littering until now because they think that it is not their job to put rubbish in the right place. There is also no effective penalty for someone who does littering. This kind of problem can be reduced by admonishing people who do littering, making a campaign about the negative impacts of littering, and also building someone’s character. By doing these solutions, I think Indonesian people can realize and start to put their rubbish in the rubbish bin.
Putri, Karunia Mulia Vanya. “Alasan Orang-Orang yang Membuang Sampah Sembarangan Sudah Mengambil Hak Orang Lain” Kompas.com, September 21, 2021. https://www.kompas.com/skola/read/2021/09/22/200000769/alasan-orang-orang-yang-membuang-sampah-sembarangan-sudah-mengambil-hak
Putra, Wisma. “Kisah Bule Prancis Pakai Kayak Bersihkan Sampah Citarum” detikNews, February 22, 2018. https://news.detik.com/berita-jawa-barat/d-3880120/kisah-bule-prancis-pakai-kayak-bersihkan-sampah-citarum
Jamaluddin, Samudera Fadlilla. “Bagaimana caranya agar orang Indonesia tidak lagi buang sampah sembarangan?” Quora, 2019. https://id.quora.com/Bagaimana-caranya-agar-orang-Indonesia-tidak-lagi-buang-sampah-sembarangan
SDGs Youth Hub. “10 Alasan Kenapa Orang Masih Sering Buang Sampah Sembarangan” February 23, 2022. https://sdgsyouthhub.id/berita-blog/blog/10-alasan-buang-sampah-sembarangan/
