139 / SDN 2 Senteluk, Lombok Barat Regency, East Nusa Tenggara

81 school children from 5 classes of grades 4-6 of the Elementary School SDN 2 Senteluk taking part in the 2022 Single-Use Plastic Free Schools program.

About the school

SDN 2 Senteluk is located in a rural area, about 8 km from Mataram (the island’s capital) and 600 meters from Tanjung Bias beach, and is adjacent to a municipal waste processing site. Nevertheless, from the initial survey, it was apparent that this school doesn’t apply any measures to manage plastic waste. There are many stalls around the school selling food in single-use plastic packaging, the same applies to the school canteen. As a result, there is lots of plastic waste to be found scattered on the school compound.

About the Single-Use Plastic Free School program

Indonesia has seen a sharp increase in plastic pollution over the past years, exposing people to a large number of health and economic risks. There are risks resulting from ingesting microplastics with increasingly contaminated marine food, risks from negative effects on the fishery sector, and also the tourism industry. Being the fourth most populous country with 40% of plastic waste ending up in the ocean, the negative impact goes far beyond local risks: Indonesia is the world’s second-largest source of marine plastic pollution significantly contributing to the global marine litter crisis.

The Single-Use Plastic Free Schools Program was designed to change one of the most critical factors contributing to plastic pollution: plastic habits. Plastic habits describe the typical behavior of using single-use plastic products, like plastic shopping bags, plastic straws, plastic bottles and cups, and more. Plastic habits are one of the biggest sources contributing to the plastic pollution crisis on land and in our oceans.

Together with our partner, we identified effective opportunities to change plastic habits based on environmental education activities for school children. We used the training of teachers to attain sustainable impact and multiplier effects. School children as a target group offer the opportunity for more accessible and more effective results due to early intervention principles. Furthermore, results from the interventions yield benefits for lifelong positive impacts.

In the Single-Use Plastic Free Schools pilot program, we support schools and teachers in helping school children to change their plastic habits with easy, fun, and interactive eco-education activities spread into 12 lessons. 

Based on the pilot program data from 2021 (funded by the ‘Rethinking Plastics – Circular Economy Solutions to Marine Litter’ project of the European Union and the German Government), the school children increased their awareness of plastic pollution risks, learned about alternative solutions, and were empowered to change their plastic habits effectively, reducing their plastic waste by 39%. Part of the program is eco-friendly rewards such as refillable water bottle stickers, reusable Tasini keychain/tote bags, and educational comic books. 

The 2022 Single-Use Plastic Free Schools program has been implemented together with our partners Making Oceans Plastic Free. It has been partly funded by SEZ Baden-Württemberg, while the cost of the eco-educational booklets for students (USD 2/student) has been funded by Dyatmika School, through their student fundraising campaign.