Paper week campaign targets students

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.