Name : Eva Nurhidayah

Student Number : J1E022043

Class :A

Critical Listening

Tittle: Australia bans more single-use plastics

BBC News, September 1, 2023

Australia has become a world leader of banning single-use plastics. Australia has introduced a
ban on thick plastic shopping bags, mass balloons releases, cotton bud sticks, and
polystyrene packaging. Scientists estimate that more than 171 trillion pieces of plastic are floating in
the world's oceans. And the number will triple by 2040. BBC News correspondent in Sydney, Phil
Mercer, says that since 2018, the Queensland government has banned lightweight single-use bags,
and in 2021, the regulations will also prohibit the use of disposable plates and cutlery. The use of
plastic in Australia is quite high, which is why the government made regulations prohibiting the use of
single-use plastics. Queensland even prohibits releasing helium balloons into the sky because when
the balloons fall, they will turn into rubbish, which endangers the ecosystem, especially in
western Australia.

After I watched the news, I was very supportive of Australian effort to reduce the use of single-
use plastics; even Australia became the world leader in banning single-use plastics. Of course, that is
a very good step to reduce plastic waste in the world, which will also be to our own detriment. The
problem of plastic waste is an old problem that has not been resolved, and in my opinion, the problem
of plastic waste will never be resolved, but it can be reduced and handled slowly. I also think that
Indonesia should follow Australia's steps to reduce plastic waste by banning the use of single-use
plastics. As we know, in Indonesia, the problem of plastic waste is also a problem that we have been
facing for a long time. Mountains of landfills for garbage, rivers full of garbage that cause flooding, and
marine ecosystems that are threatened because of garbage Most of the waste is a type of plastic waste
that is difficult to decompose. The low awareness of Indonesian society about the negative impacts of
using single-use plastics and the government's lack of aggressive campaigning for waste reduction
efforts are the causes. Maybe now in Indonesia there are starting to be efforts to reduce the use of
single-use plastic, for example, as done by the Banyumas government, which has banned the use of
plastic in minimarkets like Alfamart. It is also a good effort to reduce plastic waste, especially in
Banyumas. In the future, I hope that efforts to reduce plastic waste will be implemented in traditional
markets and other shopping centres.

Efforts to reduce this waste can not only be carried out optimally if the government supports
them, but the community must also contribute to efforts to reduce plastic waste because the
community is the main target of this effort. And vice versa, if only the community supports it but the
government does not, then new problems will definitely arise. The community and the government
must jointly think of ways to deal with this plastic waste problem without causing other problems. So,
the government and society must work together to overcome or at least reduce the use of single-use
plastic so that the goals of this effort can be optimally achieved, not only in Australia and Indonesia
but in all countries in the world.