Plastic Fantastic? Indonesia plans to turn plastic waste into road tar

Next to China, Indonesia is the world’s second biggest ocean plastic polluter. Will an initiative to build “plastic roads” help reduce the country’s plastic waste? Environmentalists cast some doubts.

Indonesia has a serious plastic waste problem.

According to the country’s environment ministry, Indonesians consume a million plastic bags per minute, and rank second in the world (behind China) for dumping plastic into the sea.

Plastic waste lines roadsides and river banks, and has devastating effects on marine life. The unsightly mess also threatens to “ruin” Indonesia’s tourism industry, Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan told reporters earlier this year.

 

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