"By: Latifah Hasibuan (Marine Buddies Medan Community)

On Sunday, February 24, Medan's Marine Buddies Community participated in a collaborative waste raid to commemorate National Waste Awareness Day. The action, held at Merdeka Square, Medan, was initiated by the Turun Tangan Medan community and attended by 40 participants from Marine Buddies Medan, Biota North Sumatra and Hilo Green Community Medan. This lively activity aims to invite the public to be more concerned about waste and the environment.

Before conducting the raid, we started the activity by participating in the routine agenda of Car Free Day and heart health gymnastics at 06.30. Together with other community members who participated at the location, we worked together to collect scattered garbage.

"If possible, we can do activities like this regularly so that we can continue to feel the effects," said Elza Natasya Balqis, a participant from the North Sumatra Biota Community who admitted that she was happy and enthusiastic about this activity.
In my own opinion, there is a lot of garbage in Medan Merdeka Square. There were ten types of waste that were collected, including 53 plastic straws, 28 cigarette ends, 23 cigarette boxes, 274 packaging plastics, 80 paper waste, 52 plastic bottles, 3 styrofoam, 1 canned drink, and 3 pieces of cloth waste. After the raid, we collected data on the waste and plastic bottles, paper waste dominated.

The large amount of garbage obtained illustrates that people who visit Merdeka Square Medan are not responsible for their garbage. Even though the Sanitation Department has provided trash cans at various points. Hopefully, this garbage raid will be able to foster a caring attitude towards the environment and increase a sense of responsibility for our waste. So that the 2020 Waste Free movement is not just a dream that can be realized. National Waste Awareness Day is not just a once-a-year commemoration, let's care about your waste! Don't make Indonesia the second largest contributor of marine debris in the world!