REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, BOGOR -- The students of the Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB) have pioneered a movement to reduce the use of plastic bags, Ranitya Nurlita, one of the students, stated here on Tuesday.

She remarked that the IPB students pioneered the movement through the ASEAN Reusable Bag Campaign (ASEAN RBC) in numerous ASEAN countries.

"The ASEAN RBC is an environmental movement that concentrates on reducing the use of plastic bags in the ASEAN countries," she noted.

According to Nurlita, the ASEAN RBC movement was initiated by the Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI) in Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines for a year.

She further added that the three countries in the ASEAN are the world's largest plastic contributors compared to other developed countries.

"The countries in the ASEAN are the world's largest plastic contributors and discard the highest amount of plastic garbage into the sea," she pointed out.

Nurlita noted that unlike developed countries, the ASEAN countries continue to use plastic bags for shopping instead of opting for reusable bags.

According to scidev.net, eight Asia-Pacific nations were among the top ten contributors to a staggering eight million tons of plastic trash in the oceans in 2010, which is forecast to increase tenfold by 2025 unless waste management practices are improved.

A study published in the journal Science in February indicated that China was the world's worst offender along with five countries in Southeast Asia: Indonesia, which is ranked second; Philippines, third; Vietnam, fourth; Thailand, sixth; and Malaysia, eighth.

The other countries in the top ten list are Sri Lanka in the fifth spot; Egypt, seventh; Nigeria, ninth; and Bangladesh, tenth.

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