Plastic Bag Ban in Jakarta

The regulation to ban plastic bag in Jakarta had to go through a lot of things before finally being approved. In the beginning at 2015, consumers needed to pay for the plastic bags used in their shopping so that they can be responsible for their consumption. This regulation came out in accordance with the news that Indonesia was the second largest country to have trash leak into the ocean. But that regulation did not last long as a lot of people were against paying for their plastic bags, many deemed the regulation to be unclear of where the funds were going. Meanwhile, another attempt of making people pay for their plastic bag happened in 2018. This attempt was much more successful leading to the current plastic ban in Jakarta. Prior to the re-attempt at enacting the regulation of making people pay for their own plastic bag, there was already a campaign about not using single-use plastic straw. The campaign itself happened due to a plastic straw getting stuck in the nose of a sea turtle.

The plastic bag ban regulation was applied gradually, and began with supermarkets and retail stores. Solutions for costumers that were shopping is that they buy or bring their own reusable cloth bag. However, supermarkets provide self-packaging with cardboard boxes if the costumers do not mind packing their own shopping.

Currently, a lot of restaurants and food outlets have also abided by this plastic bag ban regulation. It probably started not long after the plastic bag ban was enacted in stores. But since I rarely take food to go and the pandemic being around, I did not really notice the change. I only noticed it when my sister ordered boba tea online and when it was delivered there was no plastic bag along with it. After really reading the store description, it is described that they no longer give out plastic bags thus people buying more than one drink should also buy the stores reusable bag as well. Luckily at the time, we only ordered one drink because if we had bought more then the online food deliverer would have been confused.