Aqua, a bottled water model made by French shopper items big Danone, has topped a brand new rating of Indonesia’s largest plastic polluters.
A research of trash collected by Sungai Watch, a Bali-based environmental non-profit that deploys river boundaries throughout Indonesia to cease plastic particles from leaking into the ocean, discovered Aqua-branded single-use water bottles to be by far essentially the most generally littered objects, adopted by merchandise made by Indonesian shopper items corporations Wings Group and Indofood.
Sungai Watch audited 537,189 items of garbage collected from 268 river boundaries in Bali and East Java final 12 months, and revealed the info in its 2023 influence report.
Indonesia’s largest river polluters [click to enlarge]. Picture: Sungai Watch
One quarter of all polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles discarded into Indonesian rivers are Aqua-branded water bottles. Tea model Mayora (15 per cent) and Coca-Cola (13 per cent) are additionally large contributors, and are listed within the rating of high 10 polluters.
Solely tea model OT (19 per cent) contributes the next proportion of plastic cups littering Indonesian rivers than Aqua (13 per cent), in response to Sungai Watch’s knowledge.
Eco-Enterprise has approached Danone for remark.
In a sustainability dedication made in 2018, Danone pledged to take away extra plastic from the atmosphere than it makes use of by 2025. It additionally promised to extend the ratio of recycled plastic it makes use of to make its bottles to 50 per cent by 2025, targets that may show troublesome to satisfy as low oil costs bump up the value of recycled plastic.
The corporate has been awarded for its sustainability efforts, which have included a waste consciousness and assortment marketing campaign #BijakBerplastic (“plastic clever”) and the creation of Indonesia’s first bottle made totally from recycled plastic. Aqua is at present working with recycling firms in Indonesia to enhance bottle assortment efforts.
“Aqua are choices to help waste assortment infrastructure, however at a really restricted capability in comparison with what they produce,” famous Alvaro Aguilar, head of logistics for Indonesian recycling agency Prevented Ocean Plastic.
Final week, one other new report by world advocacy group the Heart for Local weather Integrity (CCI) referred to as for plastic producers to be held accountable. The report stated that plastic producers have recognized for greater than 30 years that recycling just isn’t an economically or technically possible waste administration answer.
Aqua was the primary Indonesian firm to be licensed by B Lab, a London-headquartered certification scheme which rewards “helpful companies”, or B Corps, based mostly on their social and environmental influence. Aqua attained B Corp standing in 2018 and was re-certified in 2021. B Lab has confronted scrutiny in latest months for enabling firms to greenwash.
In an open letter in 2022, a gaggle of B Corps pressured the organisation to toughen its requirements when Nestlé-owned espresso firm Nespresso was licensed. The group cited Nespresso’s “abysmal monitor report on human rights” and “extractive enterprise mannequin”. B Lab is at present reviewing its requirements.
Indonesia is likely one of the world’s largest contributors to marine plastic air pollution, with 600,000 tonnes of waste getting into the atmosphere from the archipelago yearly. Poor waste administration infrastructure, weak rules for polluters and cultural norms round waste disposal are generally cited causes of the issue.
By far the most typical objects thrown into rivers in Indonesia are non-recyclable, as an example diapers and sanitary napkins, which make up 31 per cent of the garbage retrieved by Sungai Watch’s river boundaries.
The subsequent commonest waste sort is plastic luggage (16 per cent). Plastic sachets, which had been launched by firms comparable to Unilever and Procter & Gamble to promote merchandise in smaller volumes to lower-income households, account for six per cent of river trash.
Different main river pollution are materials, glass, sandals, PET bottles, cups, styrofoam and Tetrapak cartons, the research discovered.
