Plastic waste is one of foremost environmental issue in Indonesia. Indonesia generated about 3.2 million tons of mismanaged plastic waste in 2010, about 10 percent of the world total. These facts came out in a landmark study from the University of Georgia that ranked Indonesia as the second biggest source of plastic waste dumped into the sea worldwide every year.  This problem is also crucial in Bali because it affect tourism sector. As the world tourism destination, Bali suffers from plastic waste produced by both domestic and tourism activities.

Most of the garbage problem is caused by life style. Plastic bottle becomes major contribution of plastic waste in Indonesia. Indonesians are drinking a lot of bottled water and then throw away the plastic bottle after drinking. It is getting worse as "the life style" of Indonesians is throwing the bottle in river, land, and street instead of trash can. Plastic bottle water is non-biodegradable, can leach toxic chemicals when handled improperly and damage the ecosystem.

How to overcome this problem? It is simple. Bring our own tumbler instead of grabbing bottled water in store. It is small, inexpensive, and reduces plastic consumption significantly. This is part of green lifestyle.

Through ?Bring Your Tumbler, Be an Eco-Warrior? movement, we want to create tumbler-bringing as a life style among Balinese. We spread the message benefit, trend, and uniqueness of tumbler for life and environment. We want to make it viral among primary schools students in Bali.  The aim of movement is to encourage kids and youth in Bali to bring tumbler and make it as lifestyle. It is the simplest action that they can do to save the world. We also want to spread the message to people in Bali that if this simple-single action turns into collective action, it will bring significant impact for the island. 

The reason for targeting primary school student is the green lifestyle and environmental awareness should be taught since early ages. Further, they can spread this lifestyle to their friends and family. Nobody can say no to kids with good intention.  Besides, education about tumbler and environment, we also provide water station for the school. We plan to do this project in all regencies in Bali. We are targeting primary schools in urban and tourism regions because these regions are the major contributor of plastic waste. 

Yesterday I got a good opportunity to initiate green living project in Bali. I met the representative of US Embassy, US scholarship and exchange alumni and also Young South East Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI) member in Bali. Properly speaking, the alumni has created many great social, education and environment project. Then I propose my personal project, "Bring Your Tumbler, Be an Eco-Warrior" to encourage kids, especially in Bali to bring their own water bottle to school and make it as life style. The aim is to reduce plastic bottle waste in Indonesia. This project will start in May or June and will collaborate with YSEALI and US alumni.