KEBIJAKAN PRIVASI/PRIVACY POLICY June 20 (Xinhua) -- Step into the vibrant fish-trading hub of Muncar Experience the energy as traders and workers handle and unload the freshest catches UNAIR NEWS – Plastic waste is an environmental problem faced by the people of Indonesia and the world The plastic waste threatens the life of marine and land ecosystems more environmental actions are intensively carried out by various communities as an effort to overcome global warming Some UNAIR Banyuwangi students also held an action in this semester’s break UNAIR Accounting student who serves as the Head of YOT (Young on Top) Banyuwangi she explained that the “Beach Clean Up” volunteer activity was held by YOT Banyuwangi x KOMPAS “Beach Clean Up is an environmental action that aims to educate the public to be more concerned about the environment through cleaning and counseling activities,” she explained The activity was carried out for two days on 18 and 19 January 2020 in Muncar a counseling event was held regarding integrated waste management in TPST Tembokrejo Village Muncar sharing and discussion was held with Stop Ocean Plastic and a visit to the local TPST to learn how to process waste to make it more economical one of which was composting and cultivation of maggot,” said Melan “The results of the Maggot cultivation will be used as catfish and bird feed,” she continued the activity continued with the environmental clean-up action at Kalimoro Muncar Beach Melan said that the “Beach Clean Up” activity was YOT Banyuwangi’s first activity in cleaning the beach and it ran quite lively the activity went well beyond expectations 300 more volunteers participated in this activity They were also very enthusiastic so that the event can run smoothly the activity was supported by Stop Ocean Plastic and the local village government Volunteer participants also came from various parties such as youth clubs and youths who registered through online registration ” I hope that volunteers who have participated in Beach Clean Up activities will later be more aware of the importance in protecting the environment by not littering and making people concern with the cleanliness of the environment around them Copyright © 2025 Unair News | Powered by Astra WordPress Theme TEMPO.CO, Surabaya - The Professor of Environmental Pollution and Health Sciences at Airlangga University (Unair), Lilis Sulistyorini, offers a solution to mitigate the spread and impact of microplastics in the environment The distribution of microplastics in the air "Microplastics originate from plastic waste that ends up in the sea," said Lilis to the media on Tuesday microplastics are plastic fragments with a diameter of less than 5 millimeters The degradation of these plastic debris comes from various products These solid particles have recently been under scrutiny due to their threat to the environment reaching into the human body such as the digestive system who is a lecturer at the Faculty of Public Health at Airlangga University stated that microplastics enter river water This fact was obtained from research conducted in Muncar District even though it is usually used for cooking," she added Lilis advises people to reduce their consumption of boiled seafood These food items should preferably be steamed or fried She also added that microplastics tend to carry harmful chemical compounds These small particles enter the human body through the air As a preventive measure, the government is advised to partner with community elements to strengthen education about the threat of microplastics She also emphasizes the need for a policy and technological approach Lilis recommends the development of waste treatment system innovations and environmental literacy campaigns there are several prevention solutions that can still be optimized namely regulation of single-use plastic reduction Editor's Choice: Japanese Researchers Discover Microplastics in Clouds Click here to get the latest news updates from Tempo on Google News The Thingyan Festival will be held at Inle Lake In the International Invention and Innovation Competition (I3C) 2025 the Unair (Airlangga University) team successfully won a gold medal BMKG reports that the highest wind speed was observed in the southern part of the Makassar Strait the names of the Golden Ticket applicants are almost certain to be accepted through the SNBP track It is crucial to keep your body healthy during extreme weather to maintain good health and minimize the risk of diseases The three programs focus on environmental responsibility in Dubai Japan has provided aid worth Rp645 million to address water quality issues in Grobogan Universitas Airlangga (Unair) achieves the 2nd place in Best Combine Memorial at The Philip C Airlangga University (Unair) students earn achievement in international competition namely the Silver Medal International Creative Idea Competition but also has the potential to damage the ecological and economic order of coastal communities © 2021 TEMPO - Hak Cipta Dilindungi Hukum Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents Ahead of the vote on May 3rd, politics has flipped The country is making it first big bet on semiconductors This one could be riskier than their last major crisis in 2019 After the Kashmir attack, military action is possible but comes with huge risks Universitas Airlangga Official Website Vanname shrimp farming is one of the most interested commodities in Indonesia with production value reaching 640 thousand tons in 2013 and an increase of 13.9% per year Indonesia becomes the main shrimp producing country in ASEAN countries shrimp farming is one of the potential earning source giving good opportunities Banyuwangi Regency is one of the regions in East Java potential land for cultivation many vanname shrimp ponds are cultivated with intensive One of the areas in Banyuwangi with traditional ponds mostly is in the Wringin Putih region Wringin Putih Village is located in Muncar Subdistrict Based on the geographical data of the village the ponds in the village is approximately 70,000 ha and 40% of the them is traditional ponds production for traditional ponds is still experiencing many obstacles so the production is declining One of the causes of the decline in shrimp production in traditional ponds is the lack of good land preparation causing incomplete chemical and biological processes in the soil The low production of natural feed in these ecosystems and the low quality of aquaculture water during activities causes the slow growth rate of shrimp One of the causes of the decline in soil quality is due to the low potential value of redox Potential redox (Eh) is an index that states the quantity of electrons in a system Oxidation-reduction is the reaction of electron transfer from an electron donor to an electron acceptor The electron donor will oxidize due to the release of electrons while the electron acceptor will be reduced due to the addition of electrons so it is often referred to as a redox reaction Potential redox is also influenced by the activity of micro-organisms as the activities of micro-organisms not only affect the transformation process of organic and inorganic compounds but also affect acidity and soil potential redox Redox values is potential as an analysis to state soil chemical fertility which will later be linked to pH values Changes in chemical properties include changes in potential redox and soil acidity which are the two main factors that are interrelated in influencing the solubility and availability of nutrients and their transformations in the soil which affect soil fertility This scientific data analysis is very necessary to be disseminated to traditional farmers in the village of Wringin Putih Muncar Banyuwangi Analysis on how the effect of the difference in potential redox values in the soil preparation through analysis of the potential redox value of the soil with countermeasures techniques on potential redox soil is less than 200 because the potential redox values affect the readiness of the soil as a medium of aquaculture water that has an effect on water quality One of the chemicals that can help increase the value of potential redox is Hydrogen Peroxide soluble solution in water and has a molecular weight of 34.01 It is antimicrobial because it has a broad spectrum of microorganisms including bacteria Hydrogen peroxide is more effective against anaerobic bacteria because they do not produce catalase enzymes that can destroy peroxide (Filho and Ulrich Hydrogen peroxide also has the advantage of being environmentally friendly because its decomposition produces only water and oxygen so often hydrogen peroxide is often used as a strong oxidizing chemical in degrading anaerobic organic matter and reducing the pathogenicity of microorganisms (Pedersen The results of observation from the vanname shrimp production on land with soil preparation in the Wringin Anom pond gave positive results where the yield of shrimp production was far better compared to the production of the previous period The improvement is 50% better if done with preparation of a potential redox value above 200 Based on the harvest data at the end of the cultivation period a higher yield of more than 50% compared to the period before the learning activities in this community service program It concludes that land preparation technology along with soil improvement using technical analysis from ORP data give very positive contribution to the productivity of aquaculture activities Land preparation using appropriate technology based on data will affect the smooth process of shrimp farming in the future https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1755-1315/441/1/012014 Copyright 2024 © Universitas Airlangga. All Rights Reserved. PUSAT KOMUNIKASI DAN INFORMASI PUBLIK (PKIP) Americans and Indonesians demonstrated together in Washington D.C last week in protest of a massive land reclamation project planned for Bali’s Benoa Bay is coming from increasingly international circles The East Java areas where the sand would have been dredged – Muncar all in Banyuwangi regency – are home to some of the country’s most important fisheries 13 canning operations and 27 freezing operations “The dredging of sea sand in Banyuwangi will threaten the sustainability of coastal and sea areas in the region,” the petition read “Beach and coastal ecosystems such as mangrove forests coral reefs and seagrass beds as well as biological resources are important to the lives of people here.” Ecological concerns also hang over the Benoa Bay project “A handful of people will make big profits from the reclamation while the people will bear the consequences of the environmental damage,” said Ika Inggas “It’s not only the people of Bali who reject the reclamation there have been actions and rejections not just in Bali but in other areas such as Jakarta urged Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to revoke the decree issued by ex-President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono which cancelled Benoa Bay’s protected status and permitted Tirta Wahana Bali International to go ahead with the reclamation part of tycoon Tomy Winata’s Artha Graha conglomerate would create a network of islands to hold luxury residences and hotels “You can imagine the profits investors will rake in because the project’s location is a prime spot for tourism in Bali with the most expensive land prices,” Made said the Bali Forum Against Reclamation (ForBALI) demonstrated in conjunction with Jokowi’s arrival at his party’s national conference on the resort island Protesters wore Jokowi masks and carried posters asking him to reject Yudhoyono’s decree “This is a reminder for Jokowi to fight for us,” ForBALI coordinator Wayan Gendo Suardana said “Many people here chose to vote in the election because we thought Jokowi would fix these policies.” In last year’s legislative contest the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) won 70 percent of the vote in Bali after a much poorer showing there the previous time around ForBALI also imposed its presence by flying its flag on traditional fishing boats in front of the conference venue The “fortress conservation” model is under pressure in East Africa as protected areas become battlegrounds over history and global efforts to halt biodiversity loss Mongabay’s Special Issue goes beyond the region’s world-renowned safaris to examine how rural communities and governments are reckoning with conservation’s colonial origins and trying to forge a path forward […] Project STOP looks to create effective circular waste management systems with local governments in high-pollution areas of Southeast Asia that have high plastic leakage into the ocean and low waste collection coverage and it has since expanded to form partnerships with two other cities in the country prevented more than 66,000 tonnes of waste from polluting nature while creating nearly 300 jobs for waste workers in the areas it operates around 350,000 people had gained access to comprehensive waste services through Project STOP Founded by chemicals company Borealis and environmental consultancy Systemiq Project STOP uses a 'system enabler' approach to build waste management systems with local governments that can then be fully operated without it it fully handed over the running of the systems in its second and third cities having stepped back from involvement in the first city "We work hand in hand with Indonesia's national and local governments to build waste management capacity and competences and to share best-practices across regions," said Anthony Berthold including local recycling companies and develop circular economy solutions to keep the value of materials in a circular loop." "Since Project STOP's inception by Systemiq and Borealis in 2017 we've made significant strides with our many governmental and non-governmental partners in creating effective circular waste management systems in Indonesia," said Lintong Manik senior project manager at Project STOP Banyuwangi we've created nearly 300 jobs and collected over 66,000 tonnes of waste." Project STOP aims to serve 2 million people with waste collection services 25,000 of which would be plastic and create 1,000 full time jobs "Waste management is a real issue in Southeast Asia the need for it is crucial," commented one Environmental Finance judge "A great initiative that we hope will be able to be scaled up at least regionally." Subscribe to Environmental Finance to benefit from: article In-depth special reports and analysis This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies. Find out more here TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Low-cost carrier Citilink Indonesia will open a direct flight from Banyuwangi Banyuwangi Transportation Agency secretary Ali Ruchi said the ticket is already available for sale “The flight ticket can be purchased via online on Citilink official website or directly visit the Citilink booth,” said Ali Ruchi in Banyuwangi local time and will arrive in Kuala Lumpur at 12:10 p.m local times the flight from Kuala Lumpur will take off at 13:20 p.m local time and land in Banyuwangi at 15:10 p.m local time “The trip estimation of Kuala Lumpur-Bnayuwangi will last for three hours,” Ali added Citilink will use Airbus A-230 with a capacity of 180 passengers Read: Citilink Introduces Flights to Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand Banyuwangi Regent Abdullah Azwar Anas said the international route would be a new measure to expand the accessibility to Banyuwangi “We really hope this will boost the local economy.” the city’s Cultural and Tourism Agency head MY Bramuda said that a special meeting with tourism agencies from both countries was made to discuss tourist market share following the route opening “This route aims to attract Malaysian millennials to visit Banyuwangi tourism sites without having transit in Jakarta,” he said The direct flight is also targeted religious tourists from the Indian community Tamils which is amounted to 10 percent of the total population in Malaysia.  Bramuda explained that Malaysian people from Tamil are interested to visit temples: Pura Agung Blambangan in Muncar and Pura Agung Kawitan in National Park Alas Purwo that are commonly flocked by Hindu community from throughout Indonesia Prabowo Rejects 'Puppet President' Label, Denies Jokowi's Control Manpower Minister Unveils Reasons Behind Over 24,000 Layoffs by April 2025 Prabowo Claims 99.99% Success Rate for Free Nutritious Meal Program Indonesia and Japan Deepen Strategic Alliance in Clean Energy and Infrastructure Jokowi Responds to Calls for VP Gibran's Impeachment Prabowo Praises Jokowi's Inflation Control in Cabinet Session, Denies Link to Gibran's Presence BPS: Indonesian Economic Growth Slows to 4.87% in Q1 2025 Rupiah Strengthens as US-China Trade Tension Eases BGN Chief Aims for Zero Accidents in Free Nutritious Meal Program Prabowo Holds Plenary Cabinet Session at Palace This Afternoon List of Top 10 Countries with the Most Airports in 2024 Aviation Industry 'Hit Hard' by Rupiah Depreciation Air Transportation DG Opens Up About New Airline Surya Airways INACA: Aviation Industry 80% Recovers from COVID-19 Pandemic Garuda Indonesia Boss Suggests Ticket Price Ceiling Rules be Lifted Christmas and New Year Holiday; Govt Asks Airport's Operational Time Be Extended Aviation Industry Is Backbone of Indonesian Transportation: Minister Singapore Most Popular Destinations from Soekarno-Hatta Airport Bali Opens Two International Flights from Philippines The Pope's Role in Major Events of the Modern Era Prabowo to Host Cambodian Senate President This Afternoon Sistine Chapel Prepares for the Election of New Pope Anthony Albanese Makes Indonesia His First Visit After Winning Australian Election JYP Entertainment Apologizes for DAY6 Concert Chaos in Jakarta AJI, UNESCO Declare Commitment to Support Digital Security of Student Press Inside Sistine Chapel: 5 Key Facts About the Conclave's Iconic Venue Exposing Trump's Move on Mike Waltz Dismissal 10 Best Cities to Visit in Japan Besides Tokyo to Add to Your Bucket List 10 Recommended Budget-Friendly Tourist Destinations in the United States What Are the Cheapest Businesses to Start from Home? Here Are the Top 10 Jobs That AI Will Replace: Is Your Current Job at Risk? Hollywood Shaken as Trump Orders 100% Tariff on All Foreign-Made Films Where to Go in May? Here Are the Top 12 Destinations Recounting the career of the Bluebird who helped City to their first league promotion of the 1990s.. Derek Brazil signed for Manchester United as a youth player in 1986 The club at the time was under the management of Ron Atkinson Several clubs had been looking to sign the young defender Looking back at his unique introduction to the Manchester United side that he eventuallly signed for “I played in a friendly which the club had arranged between the Irish U18s and the first team I was marking [former Manchester United forward] Frank Stapleton and he scored a hat-trick so I was quite disappointed but Ron Atkinson told me they wanted to sign me on a three and a half year deal and I couldn’t believe it He told me I’d played really well because Frank could have scored ten but I’d made so many tackles.” Source: retrounited.com Sir Alex Ferguson was appointed as manager later that year famously staying in the position until 2013 Brazil spent just under six years at Old Trafford during which time the young defender made two First Division appearances including a debut against Everton on May 10th Derek joined the Bluebirds aged 23 in August 1992 coming into a side that was then managed by Eddie May On leaving the club where he had properly begun his career and moving to Ninian Park “I was told that Cardiff City were interested basically because I wanted to play first team football “I didn’t know much about Cardiff at the time but Eddie May told me that they’d start me with a month on loan at the club I turned down some other clubs to go on loan to but it was Cardiff where I thought I should go "I was there for two weeks and Rick Wright [then the club's Financial Controller] said 'look we want to make it permanent.' which was good!" Eddie May managed Cardiff City from 1991-94 Derek fondly remembers his former manager fondly and in particular the strong squad that he had built before Brazil had joined: Eddie had brought in players like Carl Dale and there was already a bunch of young lads there like Damon Searle and Jason Perry which when you look at squads today of about 25 players is ridiculous but the support that we had both home and away was fantastic." City enjoyed the league success that came by winning promotion to Division Two Brazil made 48 appearances in all competitions for the Bluebirds throughout the season including both legs of the first round in the European Cup Winners’ Cup played against Austrian club FC Admira Wacker, now known as FC Admira Wacker Mödling City ended the 1992/93 season at the top of the league table additionally winning the 1993 Welsh Cup in a 5-0 victory over Rhyl at Cardiff Arms Park. Reflecting on his first season at Ninian Park “If you look back at the matches that we played that year we scored a lot of goals late on to win the game We were a big group of lads who would go out together if we had a night out everybody would be out so I had a great first season at the club!” Brazil was again a key part of City’s squad the following year as the Club maintained their spot in the third tier Brazil was almost ever-present throughout the season The club again competed in the European Cup Winners Cup getting knocked out in the first round by Belgian side Standard Liège These fixtures (image below) would prove to be City's last appearance in the European Cup Winners Cup as it was absorbed into the UEFA Super Cup - now known as the Europa League - in 1999 Brazil left Cardiff City for Newport County in 1996 at the age of 27 having spent four years playing for the Bluebirds Derek made a total of 141 appearances in all competitions Brazil went on to play over 100 times in total for not only Newport County but later Inter Cardiff and Haverfordwest County the latter of which he also went on to manage for a stint between 2006-2010.  The former City and United man is still involved with the Bluebirds to this day hosting in our hospitality suite - the Captain's Lounge - on matchdays at CCS Designed & built by Other Media A tale of two fish: deep challenges ahead for Indonesia’s fishery managers Part I – Cyanide fishing and foreign bosses off Sulawesi’s coast Part III – Over-depleted and undermanaged: can Indonesia turn around its fisheries? Part IV – Seafood apartments and other experiments in fixing Indonesia’s fisheries sing Madurese sea shanties to synchronized gestures as they haul in giant seine nets onto the swaying wooden deck of the M/V Sinar Indah out in the middle of the Bali Strait This morning they had offloaded a bumper haul at their homeport of Muncar: seven tons of lemuru sardines (Sardinella lemuru) for which dockside cannery agents offered $3,500 in turn were overwhelmed by the crewmen’s own neighbors and relatives Fishwives hectored the brokers while urchins snatched at wicker baskets full of lemuru the crewmen had to ring their haul with a human cordon to prevent the sardines from disappearing the chanties falter as the seine nets come up empty—not just on the Sinar Indah but on most of the other boats in what’s left of the Muncar fleet The horizon is ablaze with the lights of other vessels so dazzling and overcrowded that captains can no longer spot silvery sardine schools on the black surface of the ocean just by sight they must rely on rumors via text-message and radio So it goes in the Muncar fishery: feast or famine But there’s just enough tantalizing prospect of feasting to keep fishermen scouring the Strait ever more desperately for sardines; an endeavor that only hastens the vicious cycle of species depletion Imploding lemuru populations have knock-on effects throughout the ecosystem The humble sardine forms the basis of an extensive food chain of higher predators including Two out of every three Muncar townsmen either fish for lemuru or work in associated industries Things didn’t always look so precarious in the Bali Strait lemuru comprised Indonesia’s second biggest fishery reliably delivering enough sardines to sustain four distinct product streams: canned fish (largely for Mideast markets) meal pellets (for aquaculture pens and onshore feedlots) “It was normal to make 100 million rupiah ($8,371) in a single evening,” recalls Abidin SP who heads the regional government’s Fisheries Office in Muncar 175 tons of fish were thrown away daily because processors had already hit their full capacity!” It’s a classic boom/bust cycle: this superabundance of sardines spurred surges of capital investment both by fishermen and especially by processors leaving fishermen and factories scrambling to make any sort of return on their investment When Madurese elder Zainullah Baijuri started fishing a paired set of seiners could contain 40 tons “a pair of boats can hold 60 tons but the oceans just aren’t as productive.” the entire fleet-wide catch nowadays runs to rather less than 30 tons a day And that gets divided among the 78 boats that remain active (out of a peak fleet of 190) returns average out to less than $200 per vessel an amount that doesn’t cover even half of a seine boat’s nightly operating cost “We must leave the Straits and head to the Indian ocean if we want to land fish,” Baijuri sighs there’s no option to just up stakes and move There are existing facilities to be maintained and established foreign markets to service “We are international players,” boasts Edy Sukanto general manager for Pasific Harvest cannery “Our customer base isn’t in Indonesia Sukanto imported 118,560 kilos of sardines from Pakistan and the Czech Republic and 37,000 kilos of mackerel from China – fully half the feedstock for his plant we find it and import it,” he grimly resolves Muncar processors have had to source sardines from as far afield as India local industrialists are doubling down on fish processing with nearby Banyuwangi Port even contemplating the addition of an international-scale harbor to expedite exports out of Muncar Any player in the lemuru industry has long since learned how to ride out cycles Sardine populations are intrinsically cyclic Normally the maximum fish run comes a month and a half after the peak of the June-September southeast monsoon easterly winds blow surface water offshore nutrient-rich water upwells from down below which in turn nurture the zooplankton on which sardines feed This occurs once, maybe twice, in a normal year. But every 7-12 years or so—intermittently and unpredictably—an equatorial atmospheric pressure system called the El-Niño Southern Oscillation prolongs this ocean-churning process causing plankton blooms during any period between November and January sparking random explosions in the sardine population “All small pelagic fish do well in El Niño years,” says Alan Koropitan lead scientist for the marine policy program at the Surya Research and Education Center outside Jakarta is that overinvestment to scale up to El Niño boom-time proportions forces factories and fishermen to over-exploit sardine populations in the lean years even when El Niño returns—which will likely happen more erratically and with greater intensity due to global climate change—it could now pack much higher winds and increased storm threats So Muncar captains might not get to take full advantage of rebounding lemuru populations after all an international pact including six other Pacific Ocean countries the Fishery Ministry is still ironing out details of what the new system will mean for regional fisheries in the Bali Strait among other places But scientific management requires solid data on the scale and health of the fishery Remember the dockside melee when the Sinar Indah pulled in with its catch There’s no telling exactly how much fish was landed in such a chaotic scene Multiply that over hundreds of vessels and decades of fishing seasons Muncar Fishery Office Chief Abidin admits that a lot of sardines never get entered into official tallies Eny Buchary tried to put a number to this uncertainty She estimated that for over 50 years (between 1950-2001) only 50-66 percent of Muncar’s lemuru landings were officially tallied Analyzing two decades’ worth of numbers from Muncar Buchary went on to project five “harvest scenarios under various El Niño effects She concluded that to keep sardine catches sustainable the fishing effort would have to be reigned back to half the magnitude the local fleet had in 2001 boats would have to be smaller than they were in 2001 That would mean a lot of local fishermen would need to change professions some are already “out-placing” themselves voluntarily is trying to rear lobsters and carp in offshore net pens so we haven’t been able to export.” If things don’t improve he’ll have to join the many others who now travel away from home to find migrant labor jobs Many have already pawned their wives’ jewelry to feed the family A tale of two fish: cyanide fishing and foreign bosses off Sulawesi’s coast (Part I) the fishing boats set out again from tiny Kodingareng Island in the Spermonde Archipelago off the coast of South Sulawesi Abdul Wahid joins his fellow fishermen in the narrow shade of the beachfront village houses to check out the daily fish prices Fishing for coherent regulations along Fiji’s coral reefs (07/16/2014) Will Fiji implement a much-needed update to its fisheries laws before the September election If you want to quiet a room in Fiji or feel like a lobster in a boiling pot and ask what’s happening with the plan to update the country’s fisheries laws A tale of two fish: cyanide fishing and foreign bosses off Sulawesi’s coast (Part I) Dying for Fiji’s Sea Cucumbers Seuss characters and certainly look like they should be rubbery animals stippled in fleshy bumps are not fish at all but an invertebrate in the group that includes sea stars referred to as ‘bêche-de-mer’ or ‘trepang’ when sold as dried food have a high value – an individual in Fiji can fetch about $80 US U.S. raises $800 million for oceans, including $7 million from Leonardo DiCaprio State Department conference on the oceans raised an impressive $800 million for marine conservation this week The conference was also notable for the announcement by President Obama of an intent to significantly expand the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument Bigger than Mexico? Obama announces major expansion of Pacific protected area (06/18/2014) President Obama announced yesterday he intends to drastically expand the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument making what will likely be the largest marine protected area on the planet While the full extent of the ocean park has yet to be determined it could potentially protect over two million square kilometers fishers still make their living the traditional way launching from the shore in the hand-painted boats they have used for generations But that doesn’t mean that this harbor town is untouched by time Plastic waste is mounting on the riverbanks and in the waters around Muncar Some probably lurks within the fish brought ashore on the boats Muncar is the second-largest fishing port in Indonesia but it has barely a semblance of a waste management infrastructure the sustainability manager for Austrian plastics maker Borealis was on the ground in Muncar recently studying the problem that local inhabitants generate is either dumped haphazardly or burned “You cannot see the sand anymore because the beaches are just full of waste And then the high tide takes the waste away,” she says ACS’s Basic Package keeps you connected with C&EN and ACS $80 Regular Members & Society Affiliates ACS’s Standard Package lets you stay up to date with C&EN ACS’s Premium Package gives you full access to C&EN and everything the ACS Community has to offer Some 8 million metric tons of plastic escapes into the world’s oceans each year,most of it from countries in Southeast Asia where plastics use has outpaced waste management infrastructure The situation is approaching catastrophic proportions and other organizations are focusing on the region in the hope that stopping the flow of trash there will substantially decrease plastic pollution “The people there don’t have any other choice.” Sign up for C&EN's must-read weekly newsletter The developing world is dotted with places like Muncar The problem is particularly acute in China and in the Southeast Asian countries of Indonesia These five countries alone are responsible for most of the plastics that end up in the ocean rising affluence is allowing people to buy more plastic-wrapped food and drink than they could before leaving citizens with no environmentally sound means to throw stuff away By developing better waste management practices like those that already exist in wealthier places these countries could stop the trash from escaping into the ocean But some observers have more drastic measures in mind. A recent editorial in the Los Angeles Times declared that the “sheer volume of plastic trash now littering Earth has become impossible to ignore.” Piecemeal bans by states and cities on plastic bags and drinking straws can’t clean up the environment fast enough It called for phasing out all single-use plastic Governments in places like Indonesia and Sri Lanka have pledged to improve is mobilizing with business-friendly nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to develop methods for collecting The parties hope they can roll out the solutions fast enough and at a large enough scale to make a difference to the ocean Scientists have been sounding the alarm about ocean plastics for more than a decade the facts have grown increasingly disconcerting One of the earliest warnings came from the International Coastal Cleanup, run by Ocean Conservancy, an NGO. The International Coastal Cleanup began in 1986 when 2,800 volunteers collected 110 metric tons of debris on the Texas coast. Last year a half-million volunteers from all around the world collected more than 8,300 metric tons of garbage which amounts to a vast waste characterization survey of the world’s coastline nine of the top 10 items collected were plastics “It is really meant to be a snapshot of the most persistent items that are littering our beaches and waterways,” says Nick Mallos director of the Trash Free Seas Program at Ocean Conservancy we have seen a shift towards more and more plastics which reflects the global marketplace and the shift to plastics as the dominant material.” Scientists have also been probing the ocean itself to understand the plastics problem. Organizations such as Algalita Marine Research & Education and the 5 Gyres Institute have been sending expeditions to trawl the oceans to capture plastics and assess how widespread the problem has become they succeeded in bringing the public’s attention to the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre an area where currents converge and plastics flotsam accumulates In 2014, these organizations pooled data from their expeditions to estimate that 5 trillion pieces of plastic trash a principal research scientist with Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific & Industrial Research Organisation has seen plenty of ocean plastics firsthand Her fieldwork on plastics ingestion by birds has taken her to remote areas of Tasmania and Western Australia reachable only by pontoon plane “You don’t see a single coastal site where you don’t find trash,” she says “It is reasonable to think that if we continue in the direction where we are going now there’s going to be ecosystem impact,” Hardesty says 95% of all seabirds will be ingesting plastic if the pollution isn’t mitigated I think because it is kind of striking to say that there’s plastic in your seafood,” Rochman says “And it shows that the mismanagement of our waste has come back to haunt us on our own dinner plates.” Researchers are probing other fundamental questions, Rochman says, such as how plastics might affect fish health. They have found plastic particles in fish blood cells, livers, and even brains. Plastics probably leach chemicals into fish and have been shown to promote liver tumors and pathology in their gonads In 2015, it became clear that the scale of the ocean problem was even bigger than was uncovered in the earlier gyre studies. That’s when a team led by Jenna Jambeck, an assistant professor of environmental engineering at the University of Georgia, published a paper titled “Plastic Waste inputs from Land Into the Ocean” in Science (2015, DOI: 10.1126/science.1260352) Jambeck had read about the gyre expeditions and wondered if she could estimate the rate at which plastics were entering the world’s oceans from data about human consumption “I thought that if our waste is ending up in the ocean then it is probably because of something that is happening on land,” she recalls The team made assumptions about waste generation and probable plastics use in coastal populations around the world Using the World Bank’s country-level data on waste management practices they estimated how much waste was mismanaged through improper collection and disposal the team modeled how much of that mismanaged waste hemorrhaged into the ocean The conclusion: between 4.8 million and 12.7 million metric tons during the basis year of 2010 Based on the study’s mid-range estimate of 8.0 million metric tons leakage amounted to 3% of the world’s 2010 plastics production of 265 million metric tons as reported by the trade group PlasticsEurope The Jambeck paper suggests that plastics waste could reach crisis proportions if people don’t come up with remedies more quickly than consumption increases Plastics leakage to the ocean might grow to 17.5 million metric tons per year by 2025 and the cumulative buildup could hit 155 million metric tons by that time global sustainability leader for Dow Chemical’s packaging business credits the Jambeck publication with creating a heightened sense of urgency “I think a lot of people didn’t really recognize how big the magnitude of the problem was and how serious the crisis could be if it is not fixed,” he says Ocean Conservancy’s Mallos says the influence of the Jambeck paper cannot be overstated “It really was a hallmark moment in this dialogue and it really changed the global discourse from one that was largely focused on gyres to one recognizing a large vector from land A key to this intervention is Jambeck’s observation that certain countries contribute more to ocean waste than others and Vietnam—contribute more than half of ocean plastics Improve waste infrastructure in these places and significantly less plastic will escape into the ocean overall But the paper hardly exonerates countries with developed waste infrastructure Because of littering of about 2% of total waste and very high per-capita consumption of plastics The Ocean Conservancy report focused largely on ocean leakage from the top five countries it substituted Thailand for Sri Lanka as the fifth country The group maintains that these five countries could reduce plastics litter to the ocean by 65% as early as 2025 reducing overall marine plastics leakage by 45% The essence of the plan is that towns and cities need to collect more garbage from residents Ocean Conservancy estimates that 75% of plastics leakage comes from uncollected waste Collection is sometimes as low as 10% in rural areas of China and the Philippines The other 25% of the leakage comes from cracks in the waste management system itself when an open-air dump is located near a river and waste-to-energy facilities where combustion can take plastics out of circulation for good The report says the region needs political commitment to see the reforms through and the private sector to establish proofs of concept for local waste management schemes Mallos says governments have strong incentives to act it is not just good for the ocean,” he says Whether it is because they themselves have recognized the need to improve or they are reacting to prodding from NGOs noting that “marine plastic debris is a slow-motion catastrophe,” Indonesia made a commitment to the United Nations last year to reduce plastics debris by 70% by the end of 2025 The government said it would spend $1 billion to improve waste management and that it is eager to work with the private sector Sri Lanka banned single-use plastic items like shopping bags last year after a garbage dump collapse killed 32 people Officials hope the ban will rein in the country’s reputation as one of the worst offenders when it comes to ocean plastics Some people think China’s new ban on the importation of postconsumer plastics may have a beneficial impact on the ocean The country had been importing millions of metric tons annually from the U.S But a straw thrown into a recycling bin in Sacramento could easily end up adrift in the China Sea and they were picking through it and taking out the most valuable items and the rest were just discarded into the environment,” Dow’s Wooster says and Europe will simply export their waste plastics to other Asian countries rather than process them at home the plastics industry is heeding the call from NGOs and governments to collaborate Companies are betting that focusing on Asia could yield dramatic results and remove a black eye on the industry along with its joint-venture company Borouge and its recycling affiliate Mtm Plastics kicked off a $5 million program with Indonesian officials and the social entrepreneurial firm SystemIQ The partners are attempting to eliminate ocean plastics in Muncar by establishing a waste collection system and diverting plastics toward recycling “We want to create a mini-circular economy in that specific location—a proof point that a circular economic system works for that city—and then scale up,” Borealis’s Wiplinger says the partnership has collected data on waste characterization and leakage It has also assessed the informal plastics recycling sector—the trash pickers who pluck out metals and high-value plastics like polyester and polyethylene containers for recycling “The plastic items that are wasted are mostly low-value flexible packaging items,” Wiplinger observes the partners will implement the project using data they’ve collected Their plan includes establishing sufficient collection points deploying waste collection trucks and processing facilities The partners also want to stimulate a market for difficult-to-recycle plastics like flexible packaging “You have to increase recycling because this will give you the revenue that you need to finance waste collection,” Wiplinger says Dow has a long history with the marine plastics issue It has been sponsoring the coastal cleanup since the first Texas event more than 30 years ago the company realized that it was “not going to fix this littering problem just by doing beach cleanups.” Dow helped form the Trash Free Seas Alliance with Ocean Conservancy and other big corporate sponsors like Coca-Cola the company pledged $2.8 million toward efforts to fight marine debris Dow is sponsoring a program to build roads in Indonesia and India made in part with flexible packaging that is otherwise difficult to recycle Engineers recently blended 3.5 metric tons of plastics into a 1.8-km road laid in West Java Such roads sequester plastic that might otherwise be discarded and may last twice as long as a conventional road Companies like Dow are feeling public pressure over the environmental impact of their products And they aren’t being hounded just by one viral LA Times editorial Some NGOs have made reducing and eliminating single-use plastics part of their advocacy platforms one of the groups that sponsors the ocean plastics expeditions publishes the BAN (Better Alternatives Now) List which includes many of the products that are ubiquitous in ocean cleanups On it are bags and straws but also products such as food wrappers and beverage bottles which the plastics industry has long insisted offer the environmental benefit of preserving food “I don’t think that the attention on fixing the problem in Southeast Asia is necessarily directed at preventing bans on single-use plastics,” Dow’s Wooster says But he does admit that it’s bad for business when people turn against plastics because of a perceived impact on the environment “If they view it that way and it causes them not to use that material then we know we don’t have a market anymore,” he says It isn’t just companies that make plastics that are trying to get involved the world’s largest consumer products company transformed the plastics that volunteers collected on French beaches into 150,000 Head & Shoulders shampoo bottles the company is rolling out Fairy dish detergent bottles made of ocean plastics associate director for global product stewardship at P&G says the effort is meant to raise awareness in the minds of consumers “to signify plastic has value.” Additionally he says the products are meant to highlight to consumers P&G’s goal of using 25% recycled content in its products in Europe by the end of this year P&G, along with Ocean Conservancy, the American Chemistry Council, Pepsi, Dow, and 3M, is participating in Closed Loop Ocean, an initiative pledging $150 million toward stopping plastics leakage in Southeast Asia Closed Loop Partners will manage the program where he serves as an advisory board member provides low-interest loans for recycling projects These loans bear most of the financial risk and thus encourage commercial lenders to step up and provide the balance of the financing Closed Loop has helped fund recycling trucks in Ohio material recovery facilities in Florida and Nebraska and an enhanced recycling program in Connecticut Closed Loop hopes to duplicate the same model in Southeast Asia “It is about galvanizing investment in waste and recycling solutions in that part of the world.” But Dow’s Wooster stresses that more than pilot programs are needed to make a dent in the problem “The challenge for the industry right now is how do we start thinking bigger picture and on scalable solutions.” That’s precisely Dell’s goal with its ocean plastics initiative the computer company used about 7 metric tons of plastics that had been dumped in Port-au-Prince The company aims to increase usage 10-fold by 2025 Dell is establishing a supply chain for plastics that have been improperly disposed of and are likely headed for the ocean The company used data that it gathered in Port-au-Prince such as population density and proximity to water to come up with models to predict where trash accumulates It then compared that data with satellite imagery of dumping grounds Dell applied this model to pinpoint hot spots in Asia where it could find sources of plastics the firm’s director of worldwide procurement and packaging says the technique isn’t unlike the seismic imagery an oil company might use to decide where to set up a rig “We weren’t drilling for oil; we were drilling for ocean plastic,” he says Dell’s research found all too many sources of plastics in the region “It is not like there’s a shortage of ocean-bound plastic; there is an overabundance of it,” Campbell says It will be a long time until plastics are hard to find Pilot programs to stop plastics from flowing into the ocean in Southeast Asia are just getting started Scale-up of productive schemes is likely years away Ocean Conservancy’s Mallos is encouraged by what he is seeing people didn’t give marine plastics a second thought “If you look at climate change as an analog it took almost three decades to achieve that type of public awareness and public debate,” he says And it is not hard to understand that it is alien and that it does not belong there.” This article has been sent to the following recipient: Copyright © 2025 American Chemical Society THE Ministry of Tourism of the Republic of Indonesia is targeting 5000 Fijian visitor arrivals for this year alone Head of the section for marketing development for Oceania Indian Muncar said the Familiarisation Trip Oceania was one of the programs implemented that would help the ministry meet their target “We have a very optimistic target for the overall visitor arrivals,” Mr Muncar said “This year we are targeting 20 million visitor arrivals we are very vulnerable to natural disasters so how could we cope with that situation We try to inform the media so people know there are prepared programs if anything happens in Indonesia It’s important for you people to come here to see our culture destinations and tourism development.” “People stayed here and we paid for their hotels and meals,” he said “We have ways to cope with this these kinds of situations – that’s why we need the media to inform people that Indonesia is very safe and secured in terms of situations like this.” the realisation of their visitor arrivals was around 15 million “The target for 2018 was 17 million but there were only 15 million tourists – that’s not a lot compared to our competitors Singapore “We don’t have any MOU between Fiji especially in tourism and in the near future we expect one so we could invite Fijians to come to Indonesia Indonesia is not only a good country to shop but we also have other destinations and adventure places like beaches and our cultures.” Part of the Familiarisation Trip Oceania was spent at the unique Puri Mas Boutique Resorts & Spa in Lombok General manager Sara Sanders said it was wonderful that some people from Fiji have come to visit in Lombok and the resort “There are similarities between Fiji and Lombok but it’s a little bit more different in Bali,” Mrs Sanders said “Remember that Fiji and Australasia are part of Lombok there is a Lombok straight which is dividing Asia and Australasia we are part of Oceania and this is wonderful So I hope the Fijian people would come and visit us in Lombok and enjoy the hospitality from Puri Mas.” Puri Mas is a very small boutique resort owned by a private owner He is a ballroom and Latin dancer and has encouraged dancing to take part in the resort – part of the charity he runs and also all of the staff learn to dance “If you come here you will see them doing traditional dancing stick fighting in Lombok and also you will see our youngsters doing Latin ball dance,” said she said “The major attraction in Puri Mas is the staff Apart from us being one of the most traditional hotels where you will see Indonesia The minute you will walk into our property you will see Indonesia but it’s the friendly warmth of our staff a little bit like in Fiji but of course very different culture – it’s much more colourful I would say in Lombok.” She adds the Indonesian government has made a start by introducing the Familiarisation Trip Oceania program for a media trip to Lombok “I hope you would go home and tell everybody what a great island you’ve discovered in Lombok I know that you’re going to Bali as well – I’m sure most Fijians know about Bali but they don’t realise there are 17,000 islands in Indonesia and Lombok is one of the main attractions.” Powered by PageSuite In what is being billed as the largest-ever effort of its kind 28 companies have formed the Alliance to End Plastic Waste which plans to invest up to $1.5 billion over the next five years on projects to keep plastic trash out of the ocean The alliance includes some of the world’s largest chemical companies as well as consumer product giants like Procter & Gamble and Henkel But critics say the industry should have acted on plastic waste sooner and that this effort by itself won’t solve the problem The initiative launched with a sleek video presentation viewed on the web by more than 500,000 people its first day It featured British television presenter Hannah Vaughan Jones in a roundtable discussion with CEOs such as Dow’s Jim Fitterling “I think everyone agrees that plastic waste “I think everyone agrees that plastic waste does not belong in the ocean or the environment and this demands swift action and leadership from all of us,” Taylor said The alliance will work with local jurisdictions to establish waste collection and disposal It will engage in education and cleanup efforts And it will help develop recycling and energy-recovery technologies Among the initiatives the alliance will support is Renew Oceans an affiliate of the plastic-to-fuels start-up Renewlogy Renew Oceans plans to deploy special fencing in India’s Ganges River to collect a portion of the 550,000 metric tons of waste dumped into the river each year which was set up by Circulate Capital and SecondMuse to provide “catalytic capital” to entrepreneurs to reduce the risk of waste-reduction investments The alliance marks a shift from the old attitude that plastic waste is the responsibility of consumers senior vice president of the advocacy group As You Sow “It’s a change in that it shows the petrochemical industry is acknowledging some initial financial responsibility for cleaning up the mess created by plastics packaging waste,” he says Yet MacKerron notes that the alliance stands in “sharp contrast” to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s New Plastics Economy Global Commitment, launched in October and joined by some 250 companies and organizations The alliance doesn’t call for a reduction in the use of single-use plastics which the commitment shuns in favor of reuse and mechanical recycling He notes that a few companies in the alliance “This announcement from the industry is too little “Plastic production is slated to increase by 40% over the next decade and single-use plastic is filling our waterways A moderate magnitude 4.3 earthquake occurred in the Indian Ocean near the coast of Jawa Timur,  Indonesia 2021 at 8.46 pm local time (Asia/Jakarta GMT +7) The quake had a moderate depth of 75 km (47 mi) and was reported felt by some people near the epicenter.