Jakarta, October 7, 2021. Towards the 10.10 (October 10, 2021) discount party, several Plastic Free March movement representatives conducted a virtual talk show with the theme “The Role of Marketplaces in Providing Innovative Solutions for Online Shopping Packaging.” This talk show aims to prevent the accumulation of single-use plastic in the delivery of goods at the upcoming online shopping party. In addition, this talk show is also a follow-up to the support of 5,500 people who participated through a petition on the Change.org page, which demands e-commerce and marketplace parties not to use single-use plastics in the packaging of their goods.
Virtual Talkshow on Marketplace’s Role in Providing Innovative Solutions for Packaging
Online Shopping
Before the talk show, the Plastic Free March movement had sent open letters to nine parties, namely Tokopedia CEO William Tanuwijaya, Shopee Indonesia CEO Chris Feng, Bukalapak CEO Muhammad Rachmat Kaimuddin, Lazada Indonesia CEO Chun Li, Blibli.com CEO Kusumo Martanto, Zalora Indonesia CEO Anthony Fung, Gojek Co-CEOs Andre Soelistyo and Kevin Aluwi, Grab Indonesia President Ridzki Kramadibrata, and the Indonesian E-Commerce Association on Thursday (22/7). In addition, peaceful action has also been carried out in front of the Tokopedia building on Thursday (9/9). However, until today, there has been no response or statement in response to the open letter or follow-up to the previous peaceful action.
To respond to our demands, Roffi Uddarojat, Head of Policy and Government Relations in the Indonesian E-Commerce Association, said, “I think this is one of our opportunities to improve as well. After all, from an environmental perspective, the most important thing is that trade from electronic systems or e-commerce becomes more sustainable. And our job (iDEA) will be to coordinate, facilitate, and accommodate the interests of every stakeholder that we can connect and bridge to e-commerce platforms.”
Avoiding single-use plastic packaging in the delivery of goods is actually very possible for every business. As Ratu Ommaya, Head of Values, PR & Community Engagement, at The Body Shop Indonesia, said, “Using packaging that is more environmentally friendly actually in terms of cost we save. Saving about 25% is a way to find solutions to maintain the relationship between business and commitment to preserve nature.”
Bisuk Abraham, research associate from the Institute for Economic Research (LPEM) FEB UI, stated that based on a survey he conducted, around 43% of these businesses said that these reduction and handling efforts did not significantly impact their production costs. “In May this year, we conducted a survey of 88 business actors in the DKI Jakarta area, and we have adjusted it to 3 sectors of business actors, namely manufacturing, wholesale and retail traders, and food and beverage trade services, which are the targets of PermenLHK No. P75 of 2019.” said Bisuk.
This talk show was also responded to by Tiza Mafira, a representative of the Plastic Free March team, and Valerie The Twins, a public figure as well as a consumer representative who responded to her readiness to be able to shop without using single-use plastics in packaging and shipping.
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Notes:
[1] The Plastic Free March was initiated in 2019 by Divers Clean Action, Econusa, Gerakan Indonesia Plastic Bag Diet, Greenpeace Indonesia, Indorelawan, Pandu Laut Nusantara, Plastic Island, and Walhi Jakarta to encourage the reduction of single-use plastic in Indonesia. Single-use plastics in Indonesia.
