Students clean up beach

Students clean up beach

JAKARTA (JP): Students from Jakarta International School and Lembaga Pembinaan Bahasa, both in South Jakarta, cooperated yesterday to clean up a section of beach on one of the Seribu Islands.

The 18 Jakarta International School (JIS) grade five students and their 10 counterparts from Lembaga Pembinaan Bahasa have each been studying environmental awareness at the respective schools. They went to Onrust Island, which has been used as a quarantine station and ship repair, to put their learning into practice and tackle the massive problem of rubbish on the tourist island.

Their original plan was to split into teams to clean separate sections of the small island, but, once on site, they realized it was too daunting a task and concentrated their efforts on a 200 meter stretch of beach.

They managed to collect 89 bags stuffed with garbage in one- and-a half hours. The equivalent of a bag a minute.

The majority of garbage was industrial waste, including rubber off-cuts from a flip-flop factory and mounds of styrofoam. Plastic mineral water bottles were also prominent.

David, 11, said they had been studying how long certain items last and pointed out that plastic bottles take at least 10 years to disintegrate. JIS students Sidhart, 10, and Nik, 11, both added that the styrofoam would probably never go away.

The students reached the island on the Phinisi Nusantara, a replica of a Bugis schooner made for the 1986 World fair in Vancouver, Canada. The boat's operators, Nick and Ann Fenton and their crew of eight, volunteered their services for the day.

The students also found fragments of old pottery and bottles, including a part of a cognac bottle from 1815. The crew of the Phinisi will turn over all the fragments to the National Museum. (jmw)