Paper week campaign targets students

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

As the volume of garbage produced in Jakarta continues to grow incrementally, three non-governmental organizations have targeted elementary school students for their paper week campaign.

But instead of just giving monotonous lectures, they are organizing games, quizzes and interesting ways of dealing with garbage.

The paper week is being organized by GE Elfun, an association of volunteers under the auspices of the General Electric (GE) company, which deals with social and welfare problems; the Love Indonesian Children Group (KPAI), an organization dealing with children's problems, and Aikon, which is concerned with the environment, art and cultural heritage.

"Through these fun methods, we hope to provide some information about environmental conservation to the students," Aulia Esti, the leader of the Love Indonesian Children Group, said here last Saturday.

About 100 students from Elementary Schools 01 and 02 Karet Setiabudi, Central Jakarta, appeared curious during the two-hour paper week program they attended in Setiabudi last Saturday.

At first, there was a lecture on tree planting and garbage disposal.

Aulia, who directed the program, made a presentation on how to look after a tree and how to treat biodegradable and non- biodegradable garbage.

After this, there were games and quizzes concerning the same themes. The children became excited as they played a game in which several students had to run to pick up some garbage and put it in different basins based on the garbage type.

After the games and quizzes were over, Aulia gave another brief presentation on paper recycling and showed how this could be done.

Musician Dik Doank and model Lola Amaria, who volunteered to entertain the students, also participated in the games.

The students looked surprised when Aulia showed them some colorful recycled paper, books and picture frames made from waste paper trash. They looked even more surprised when told that the colors were made naturally from plants such as pandanus and turmeric.

Many of the students showed interest in the program, not only because they were encouraged to sing and be photographed with the celebrities, but also because they were learning about environmental preservation.

"I never knew that waste paper could be recycled into such interesting things," 12-year-old Agus told The Jakarta Post.

However, some other students stated their disappointment as they missed out on some of the things that were happening.

"I couldn't see when the lady showed how to make recycled paper even though I want to make it at home," said Aan, a fifth grade student, saying that the venue where the event was held was too small.

Raymond Michel Menot, spokesman for Aikon, said that they were targeting school students because they were the young generation who would be responsible for preserving the environment in the future.

"With this program, we show that they can also help save our environment simply by dumping garbage in garbage cans or using recycled paper," he remarked.

Currently, Jakarta produces about 6.3 tons of garbage per day, of which more than 10 percent consists of paper. "If we don't use this waste paper, by recycling it for example, this means we are throwing away 37 tree trunks per day," he said, adding that the city administration could only handle about 85 percent of the total garbage produced.

The amount of garbage will continue to increase in line with population growth.

Ironically, most schools here fail to participate in such environmental campaigns, said Haryuni Rochayati from Aikon.

She said that the organization had invited over 300 schools, ranging from kindergartens to high schools, to join the program.

However, only about 10 percent had done so, mostly private schools such as the Jakarta International School, St. Theresia's, Al Azhar and Madania.

"Most schools, even some prestigious ones, have yet to take the environment issue seriously. This is a sad reality as schools can actually play an important role in preserving the environment in the future," she said.