Plastic waste from several Asian countries has been again turning up on several beaches in the Natuna Island region, Riau Islands Province.

“Most of them were used plastic bottle waste from various countries. This happens regularly during the northern season,” Eddy, an environmental activist from the Natuna Exploration Community (JBN), said here on Thursday.

The findings in the field have shown that the plastic bottle waste has been coming from various countries, including Vietnam, Thailand, China, Malaysia, and Hong Kong, he informed.

“We suspect this is waste from ships passing in the Natuna Sea, and these goods are not imported but are purely products from these countries, and are not listed as being imported by Indonesia,” he said.

Oil lump waste, which resembles asphalt, is also often found along the coast throughout the year.

“It’s very easy for us to find this waste stuck to sand, wood, and plastic waste, thick, black, sticky, like asphalt,” he said.

In the past three years, JBN has made beach cleaning activities a routine agenda before diving or snorkeling, he added.

“Initially, every weekend we did island-hopping, snorkeling, and diving trips, but we were quite concerned about the condition of the trash we found on beaches. We identified the waste and it turned out that the trash is not from Indonesia or beach visitors, but the waste is from abroad mostly,” he informed.

He said he suspected that the waste was dumped by ships crossing Natuna waters.

“We can be sure that they are not Indonesian products and not foreign goods that we import into Indonesia,” he added.

He called for supervision of such waste because the amount of waste from overseas is increasing every year.

“We have searched every year at the same points, starting from the north, south, and even the small islands around Bunguran Island. The waste volume is increasing every year. Last week, we found piles of trash on Jantai Island, South Bunguran,” he said.

Source: Antara News