Running head : Unplastic Order 1

NATIONAL ENGLISH COMPETITION (NEON) 2021

Unplastic Order

Ainun Azizah Puspita Sari

Institute Technology of Sepuluh Nopember

5th April 2021

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Abstract

Plastic has become one of the most used substances. It is seen everywhere these
days, from supermarkets to common households. Indonesia generates 175,000 tons
of waste and about 14% or 24,500 tons a day of plastics. Unfortunately, this massive
‘plastics consume habits’ not accompanied by awareness of knowledge in proper
waste management. There are three reasons, no strict regulation that concern in
waste management, poor mindset. According Geyer in 2017, Packaging was the
dominant use of primary plastics, with 42 percent of plastics entering the use phase.
. To solve this problem, we need to know that which sectors produce most plastics.
Electronic commerce, commonly known as e-commerce, is the buying and selling
of product or service over electronic systems such as the Internet and other
computer networks. Looking how important electronic commerce to move our
society economy, we can conclude that plastic produce in a big amount in this
sector. Therefore, reducing the use of plastic in terms of packaging is a small step
to reduce plastic waste in Indonesia. First reason why online shop should substitute
their plastic packaging is because plastic only use once. Second reason why online
shop should substitute their plastic packaging is because for new innovation. Now
found many packaging from online shops that not used plastics and that not less
good or even much prettier. The last reason why online shop is definitely dangerous
for the environment. I understand that we cannot 100 percent not using plastic. I
also agree that plastic give us many benefits and the price is very cheap. However
there are many materials that are cheap also practical as plastic that more. For
example is box from cardboard. Once again I say that it is not easy to stop using
plastic. I also feel like that. I'm sure you all agree with me too. However, things will
not be resolved if we all depend on other people. We are accustomed to living
casually and thinking only about the effect on ourselves without thinking about the
impact on other living things. Indirectly, regardless of their impact on the
environment, we are slowly destroying ourselves. So there is nothing wrong with
choosing plastic as the packaging material for our orders.
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Unplastic Order

The first synthetic plastic Bakelite was produced in 1907, marking the beginning of
the global plastics industry. However, rapid growth in global plastic production was
not realized until the 1950s. Untill today, plastic still become popular in our society.
That happens for no reason. Plastic already known as material that have many
benefits. Plastic known as light material, easy to shape also easy to get. Looking for
many benefits that we can get from plastic make people produce more plastic in a
big amount. In other words, the more plastic used, the more trash be produced. In
1950 the world produced only 2 million tonnes per year. Since then, annual
production has increased nearly 200-fold, reaching 381 million tonnes in 2015.
Every day, Indonesia generates 175,000 tons of waste and about 14% or 24,500
tons a day of plastics. Unfortunately, this massive ‘plastics consume habits’ not
accompanied by awareness of knowledge in proper waste management. The United
Nations Joint Group of Experts on the Scientific Aspects of Marine Pollution
(GESAMP), estimated that land based sources account for up to 80 percent of the
world's marine pollution, 60 to 95 percent of the waste being plastics debris. There
is a wide range of estimates of the quantity of plastics in surface waters (Jambeck,
2015). Imagine how many plastic are not count in the ocean. To understand the
sources of ocean plastic pollution we must take into account multiple factors:
proximity of given population centres to the coast, and national waste management
strategies. Not all of the plastic waste we generate is at high risk of entering the
oceans; in fact, for many countries the quantity which does end up as ocean
pollution is very small. Here we see a very strong geographical clustering of
mismanaged plastic waste, a high share of the world’s ocean plastics pollution has
its origin in Asia. China contributes the highest share of mismanaged plastic waste
with around 28 percent of the global total, followed by 10 percent in Indonesia, 6
percent for both the Philippines and Vietnam. Other leading countries include
Thailand (3.2 percent); Egypt (3 percent); Nigeria (2.7 percent) and South Africa
(2 percent). Talking about ocean, Indonesia is one of country that has an ocean area
larger than land. There are three reasons, no strict regulation that concern in waste
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management, poor mindset. Actually, many ideas have been contributed. But very
few have been implemented.
The effective waste management of municipal solid waste (MSW) can be achieved
by taking into account: the need to estimate material recovery potential, identifying
sources of component generation, facilitating the design of processing equipment,
estimating the physical, chemical and thermal properties of the waste, and
maintaining compliance with national laws. In this case, Indonesia does not have
strict rules regarding waste processing. The percentage of waste that is successfully
processed is still small and the rest is still disposed of in landfills. For example in
my city, Mojokerto. You need to know that my city is the second smallest city in
Indonesia. But, is the waste production low? Certainly not. Garbage is still
processed manually. Initially, many waste banks were established, but over time
many of them stopped operating. This is not proportional to the large amount of
plastic production circulating in the community. Society is not restricted in the use
of plastics. Because plastic is cheap, this makes people wasteful in using plastic.
One of them is the case of using plastic in online buying and selling. E-commerce
activities have become commonplace for people. To solve this problem, we need to
know that which sectors produce most plastics. According Geyer in 2017,
Packaging was the dominant use of primary plastics, with 42 percent of plastics
entering the use phase. Talking about electronic commerce, who doesn’t know
Shopee? Tokopedia?. Electronic commerce, commonly known as e-commerce, is
the buying and selling of product or service over electronic systems such as the
Internet and other computer networks. Looking how important electronic
commerce to move our society economy, we can conclude that plastic produce in a
big amount in this sector. Therefore, reducing the use of plastic in terms of
packaging is a small step to reduce plastic waste in Indonesia.
First reason why online shop should substitute their plastic packaging is
because plastic only use once. Remember that global primary production of plastic
was 270 million tonnes (Jambeck, 2015). Plastic usually use by online shop owner
to protect their items to be safe and avoid damage. Packaging is therefore the
dominant generator of plastic waste, responsible for almost half of the global total.
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In 2015, primary plastics production was 407 million tonnes; around three-quarters
(302 million tonnes) ended up as waste. Let’s be honest, when you receive your
online shop order that wrapped by plastic, do you think to keep that plastic and use
again? Maybe there is any of you will keep it, but I am sure that most of you will
immediately throw away that plastic. Why did that happen? That’s because plastic
only use once. If each day online shop have to send fifty order and still use plastic
for their packaging, imagine how many trash be produced.
Second reason why online shop should substitute their plastic packaging is
because for new innovation. Now found many packaging from online shops that
not used plastics and that not less good or even much prettier. Customer divided by
two types. First type of customer is they who are truly interest the items being sold.
This type of customers usually only buy stuff that they only need. Second type is
customers who they are do not really need the item being sold, but interested to
buying it because of its packaging or external appearance. Yet not everyone agrees
that. In spite of that, nothing’s wrong with beautify the packaging of our selling
item. Besides that, using packaging other than plastic can also make customers
recognize the uniqueness of our shop items.
The last reason why online shop is definitely dangerous for the environment.
I understand that we cannot 100 percent not using plastic. I also agree that plastic
give us many benefits and the price is very cheap. However there are many
materials that are cheap also practical as plastic that more. For example is box from
cardboard. If we compared with plastic, packaging with box from cardboard has
more variety and can be decorated in many styles. Indirectly, this can attract buyers
and the opportunity for buyers to save and reuse packages more bigger.
Once again I say that it is not easy to stop using plastic. I also feel like that.
I'm sure you all agree with me too. However, things will not be resolved if we all
depend on other people. We are accustomed to living casually and thinking only
about the effect on ourselves without thinking about the impact on other living
things. Indirectly, regardless of their impact on the environment, we are slowly
destroying ourselves. So there is nothing wrong with choosing plastic as the
packaging material for our orders. I am sure there are many other materials and
materials that are no less cheap, lightweight and malleable and beautiful like plastic.
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Besides being beautiful, who knows our packaging can become the identity and
uniqueness of our store and can attract consumers. Nobody likes change, including
me. But, as William Johnston said, The most meaningful change in life is a change
in attitude. The right attitude will produce the right action.
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 References

[1] Ishita. S Essay on E-Commerce: Scope, Importance, Advantages and

Limitations https://www.businessmanagementideas.com/essays/e-commerce-
essays/essay-on-e-commerce-scope-importance-advantages-and-limitations/18218
[2] Hannah Ritchie and Max Roser (2018) - "Plastic Pollution". Published online
at OurWorldInData.org. Retrieved from: 'https://ourworldindata.org/plastic-
pollution' [Online Resource]
[3] Jenna R. Jambeck, Roland Geyer, Chris Wilcox, Theodore . Siegler4, Miriam
Perryman, Anthony Andrady, Ramani Narayan, Kara Lavender (2015) “Plastic
waste inputs from land into the ocean
https://science.sciencemag.org/content/347/6223/768 [online resource]

[4] Jambeck, J. R., Geyer, R., Wilcox, C., Siegler, T. R., Perryman, M., Andrady,
Law, K. L. (2015). Plastic waste inputs from land into the ocean. Science,
347(6223), 768-771. http://science.sciencemag.org/content/347/6223/768.