Rivers are pathways for plastic and other waste, transporting it from inland to the ocean, thus preventing littering and providing waste collection services is vitally important to prevent waste from entering rivers.
Indonesia's Citarum River, which passes through the southern part of Bandung, was named the dirtiest river in the world by international environmental organisations in 2013 because of its huge amount of waste, dominated by plastic and pollutants from the textile industry. About 2,000 tonnes of plastic waste enters the river daily due to a large population and insufficient waste treatment.
The local government developed the Citarum Harum (Fragrant Citarum) programme in 2018 to transform the water quality of this 270-kilometre river to one suitable for drinking. The programme sends 1,400 military troops every day to collect waste along the river. To increase efficiency, the programme is aided by Plastic Fischer, a German company concerned with plastic waste issues. The company has installed trash or debris booms, filter-like equipment that retains plastic waste, up to a depth of 60 centimetres. The collected waste is then distributed to waste banks in Bandung for sorting and treatment.
A clean-up of the Bengawan Solo River, the biggest river in Java Island which flows from southwestern Solo (Central Java) to northern Surabaya (East Java), was conducted in 2019 in celebration of World Cleanup Day. Through the coordination of the local environmental bureau and local disaster relief agency, hundreds of youth volunteers and locals collected 1.2 tonnes of waste from a catchment area in Bojonegoro (East Java). The collected waste was then transported to a local landfill site. This initiative was complemented by a theatre show, fun games, and prizes to attract more people to join.
Indonesia also conducted a pilot research project in the same year to prevent plastic waste from entering the ocean through rivers. Danone-AQUA, a drinking water company, collaborated with Ocean Cleanup and the Coordinating Ministry for Maritime Affairs and Investment, to unveil Interceptor 001, a solar-powered machine that can prevent up to 60% of plastic leakage from entering the ocean (AQUA, 2019; Widyaningrum, 2019).
A programme in the Republic of Korea collects waste at estuaries by using floating fences and trash racks designed to collect waste in small rivers (Figure 1). The trash rack is usually made from cheap materials such as bamboo or local wood (Figure 2). One key point in the conduct of such programmes is determining who will bear the cost of collecting and disposing of the waste, so sharing the burden among stakeholders may be necessary. At present, the expenses of proper waste collection and disposal are borne by local governments in river basins, with subsidies from the central government.
Beach Waste Collection
The International Coastal Clean-up. is the biggest worldwide initiative for cleaning up beaches, and has been going on for more than 30 years. More than one million people from 22 countries collected 10,000 tonnes of waste in September 2018. In ASEAN+3 countries, the programme involves more than 331,000 people from 11 countries.
The Philippines government launched the Manila Bay Rehabilitation programme in January 2019 to clean up designated estuaries and waterways, implement solid waste management, and reduce the level of faecal coliform. One of the highlights was the clean-up of Baseco Beach in Manila during World Clean Up Day on 21 September 2019. Thousands participated in the event, which collected 187 tonnes of waste.
Waste Collection at Oceans
Floating waste can damage ships, so government authorities who oversee ports and shipping routes require ships to collect and clean up ocean waste (Figure 3).
Fisherfolk in Japan voluntarily collect ocean waste with help from the Social Sports Initiative Association (Yasuhumi, Maeda, and Asano, 2015) and are also involved in another government programme. In Kagawa Prefecture, the government has a voluntary agreement with fisherfolk associations, assigning them the task of bringing back waste collected by fishing nets. The coastal local governments then collect the waste free of charge. The disposal cost is jointly borne by local governments in the prefecture, including coastal and inland municipalities.
In another case, a fisher in Hue, Viet Nam, collects plastic ocean waste and sells it to a junk shop. He donates part of his revenue to a local youth union supporting poor students.
A fishing port in Jakarta once had a seawater purification system utilising tidal range fluctuation to capture oil in seawater and remove floating waste, including plastic waste (Orishimo, 2004). The system, a sub-component of Phase IV of the Jakarta Fishing Port/Market Development Project, and supported by the Japan International Cooperation Agency from 1993 to 2002, constructed a pond between the port area and the sea. The pond's gate to the port area would be opened during high tide to allow seawater to flow inside. A screen installed in the ditch linking the port and the pond would then capture the floating waste, including plastic waste. The gate would be closed at the end of high tide and the mangrove forest and its eco-system purified the water. During low tide, the gate would be opened, allowing the water to be discharged into the sea. Although no longer operational, the system is an example of innovative infrastructure in collecting floating waste from the ocean.
Opportunities to Raise Awareness
Collecting waste from rivers and beaches is a good opportunity to raise awareness. The Social Sports Initiative, a non-profit association in Japan, organised Spo Gomi, a competition to collect waste, whereby a team of five competes for points calculated based on the type of waste. Research shows such competitions attract more people to join clean-up events. The event organiser says such activities raise environmental awareness (Bay, personal communication, 2012). Spo Gomi events are organised by local governments in the cities of Tokyo and Yokohama and the prefectures of Aomori, Fukui, Saitama, and Wakayama.
Busch (2019) pointed out that, based on interviews with participants of beach clean-ups in Europe, experience-based learning at beach clean-ups can directly change people’s perceptions of plastic that can drive new pro-environmental plastic behaviour. Thus, public participation in cleaning up plastic waste may lead to the reduction of littering and other behavioural changes.
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