Waste Management in the Global Era

 In today's global era, a problem that never seems to be solved is garbage or waste, because after all, garbage is the result of the leftovers of people's daily activities. Therefore, in this essay I will discuss garbage. With this essay I hope to help readers understand the problems we face in this era. Garbage is the leftover of people's daily activities and one of the causes of environmental pollution around communities.

             Garbage is classified into two types, namely organic and inorganic. Organic garbage is garbage from leftover organic materials such as food scraps, dry leaves, fruit peels, rotten fruit, and so on. Organic garbage generally decomposes by itself through decay. Inorganic garbage, on the other hand, is garbage that is difficult to decompose  and can cause soil pollution; it usually comes from man-made materials such as plastic, styrofoam, glass beverage bottles, and others. The problem today is generally the accumulation of inorganic garbage because it takes a long time to decompose, but there are several ways to deal with this problem, such as making use of garbage by recycling it into useful products.

             Some garbage can be recycled; for example, plastic bottles can be turned into flower pots, decorated and cut according to need. Not only that, beach waste such as seashells can be used for curtains or furnishings with aesthetic value. To tackle the problem of inorganic garbage today, we can start with small things, such as: reducing the use of plastic bags by replacing them with cloth bags. When buying drinks, we can bring a bottle from home to reduce  the use of plastic bottles, replace plastic straws with reusable stainless steel straws, and replace styrofoam by bringing a lunch box from home.

There is even an innovation going viral at the moment, namely the invention of plastic bags made from cassava. This is a very creative and innovative idea to minimise the use of plastic bags, because these bags dissolve easily in hot water. Although the price is slightly higher than ordinary plastic bags, this idea is a step that can be applied so that we can reduce the use of plastic, given that the surge of waste today is overwhelming, to the point that tourist areas such as beaches are polluted  as a result of people throwing garbage carelessly.

 There is also a group that has gone viral lately, a group of young people who are very enthusiastic and passionate about cleaning up the environment, namely Pandawara Group. This team or movement volunteers in various cities to contribute to cleaning the environment. I hope the events often held by  Pandawara Group can make many layers of society realise how important it is to manage and take responsibility for the garbage we produce. We should not only expect the government to help manage it; the government must also be aware that the budget should be used properly to deal with it. We are obliged not to litter, and even better, the garbage we produce should be processed at home: the inorganic part sorted and then deposited with a waste management service, and the organic waste turned into compost. But do not worry for those of you who want to know how; there are now many green influencers who educate us on how to process and sort garbage well and act wisely. Judging from several places visited by the Pandawara team, they eventually returned to their original condition with piles of garbage. There must be a sustainable movement to solve the garbage problem from upstream to downstream, initiated jointly by the community and the government, with the Pandawara team as the driving force. The Pandawara team looks cool when raising the garbage issue; parties who care about their good image will surely join in various forms of accountability and efforts to clean up their good image before its smell reaches the public.

            The causes of the garbage problem that has not ended to this day, leading to piles of garbage in various cities, are the lack of public awareness, excessive plastic production, insufficient facilities from the government, minimal self-awareness among the public, and a government that is not firm enough in resolving this problem, regarding it as merely a small problem that has no significant impact. The impact of ever-growing piles of garbage disrupts activities, such as polluting nature, spoiling the scenery and damaging ecosystems, especially if garbage is scattered in the sea, in the mountains or in places where much wildlife lives.

            There are very many examples of beaches with piled-up garbage, which can be seen on Pandawara's social media. Indonesia needs young people like Pandawara who clean up garbage little by little until it is totally clean. They are willing to give without being paid, and because of them we should become more aware of the importance of keeping things clean. If we still cannot clean up, at least we can reduce, by throwing garbage in its place, separating organic and inorganic garbage, and reducing the use of plastic and materials that are difficult to decompose.

            The purpose of my essay is to show the condition of the piling garbage problem, and to show how important it is to minimise garbage that is difficult to decompose, as well as how to reprocess garbage into more useful goods. I hope my essay can help make readers aware of replacing the use of plastic or anything hard to decompose with goods that can be used more than once. I also hope that my essay can be accepted by readers.