Bogor, 30 November 2023 - In an effort to map and get aspirations and ideas in supporting the circular economy ecosystem, WWF-Indonesia through the Plastic Smart Cities program in collaboration with the Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs held a round table seminar as an effort to accelerate the development of small businesses and cooperatives through institutional strengthening in the transformation of informal sector businesses to the formal sector.

Taking place at Sahira Hotel, Bogor, West Java, the seminar held on Thursday, (30/11) invited a number of key speakers, including Denni Wismanto, Head of the Bogor City Environment Office, Suparyono, S.H., M.M., Assistant Deputy for Institutional Governance of the Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs, H. Castono, from the Chairman of PKPS Purwakarta, and Vera Novita, Chairperson of the Pulo Kambing Foundation.

Indonesia, as the second largest contributor to plastic waste in the world after China, has an ambition to reduce plastic waste by 70% by 2025. It is estimated that between 4.8-12.7 Mt of plastic accumulates in the ocean each year (Jambeck et al., 2015), and around 60% of plastic waste polluting the ocean comes from cities.

Plastic Smart Cities is an initiative launched by WWF-Indonesia with a mission to encourage cities and coastal centers to stop the leakage of plastic waste into nature by 2030 by working with stakeholders around the world.

In his speech, Aditya Bayunanda, CEO of WWF Indonesia Foundation, emphasized WWF-Indonesia's commitment through Plastic Smart Cities to institutional strengthening of partners in scaling up the waste bank business towards a more circular economy business model. "This strengthening is expected to be a solid foundation for significant economic sustainability in driving the business progress of waste bank partners and can be utilized to further strengthen the cooperation between WWF-Indonesia and the Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs," added Aditya.

New Alternative Door with Circular Economy Approach

WWF-Indonesia's collaboration through the Plastic Smart Cities program with the Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs has currently implemented programs and challenges in supporting the circular economy ecosystem through promotion and strengthening by identifying, profiling, various best practices and institutional strengthening in order to ensure the sustainability of waste bank businesses.

This implementation goes through three main phases, including socialization of sharing experiences and absorbing aspirations from actors and stakeholders, technical guidance related to the creation of business legal entities and business management, and assistance so that the socialization and training process not only provides outputs but also outcomes.

"This is a concrete step through a cooperation agreement between KemenKopUKM and WWF-Indonesia, in addition to accelerating the development of small businesses and cooperatives with institutional strengthening, it is also a joint effort to control the growing population of plastic waste," said Secretary of the Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs (SesKemenKopUKM) Arif Rahman Hakim. According to Arif, cooperatives and waste banks are closely related in the context of plastic waste management and sustainable development. Where cooperatives can be involved in the establishment and management of waste banks, as well as being the driving force in the establishment of waste banks at the community level.

This seminar is expected to produce an aspiration formulation and database of the circular economy sector as part of the policy process. In addition, this activity is expected to be able to integrate the Plastic Smart Cities program into the RPJM of the Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs and build partnership support from stakeholders.

For the next information, please contact:

Karina Lestiarsi, Communication, Campaign & PR Team Yayasan WWF Indonesia
E-mail: klestiarsi@wwf.id
Telp: 0852-1816-168

Budi Mustopo, Head of Communications and Technology Bureau, Ministry of Cooperatives and SMES
Telp: 0852-2126-6666