Selasa 25 Sep 2018 20:50 WIB

37 percent of sea waste is plastic

Plastic waste is the most dangerous as it has entered the food chain.

Rep: Puti Almas/ Red: Reiny Dwinanda
Divers community found a lot of plastic garbage in the sea base.
Foto: dok. KKP
Divers community found a lot of plastic garbage in the sea base.

REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, PROBOLINGGO — Ministry of Environment and Forestry (KLHK) said as many as 1.2 million tons of waste polluting the sea in Indonesia. Around 37 percent of the waste are plastics, which could not easily be decomposed.

Ministry of Environment and Forestry director general of coastal and marine pollution control, MR Karliansyah explained marine waste has became a world problem. He said plastic is the most dangerous because it has entered the food chain.

"A lot of fishes in the sea were found to have eaten plastics,” said on the sidelines of the "Coastal Clean Up" program to commemorate Environmental Day at Binor Beach, in Probolinggo, East Java on Tuesday (Sept 25).

Karliansyah said the findings were based on the results of a survey conducted by Ministry of Environment and Forestry in October 2017 in 18 districts / cities that have territorial waters or beaches in Indonesia. The survey was far from what French researchers said that Indonesia is the second largest country in the world with the waste in the sea.