Purwakarta, W Java (ANTARA) - Environment Minister Hanif Faisol Nurofiq has urged pesantrens (Islamic boarding schools) in Indonesia to carry out waste management properly to reduce the volume of waste generated in the country.
"The more waste we produce, the bigger our responsibility is to resolve this," he said at the Waste-Free Pesantren Action event at Al-Muhajirin 3 Islamic Boarding School, Purwakarta, West Java, on Saturday.
Nurofiq gave the example of Al-Muhajirin Islamic Boarding School, which has nearly seven thousand students in all its branches in total.
"If we assume that each person produces 0.5 kilograms of waste per day, then at Al-Muhajirin, the daily pile of waste reaches 3,500 kilograms. This amount is quite large," he pointed out.
Therefore, the minister invited all Islamic boarding schools in Indonesia to manage waste properly and correctly, so that the large amount of waste can be reduced every day.
He outlined several habits that can be adopted, including eating in moderation to reduce food waste in Indonesia, which currently accounts for 50 percent of the total organic waste in the country.
Minister Nurofiq also invited all Islamic boarding schools to reduce the use of products with single-use packaging.
"Let us decide together that starting from today, we will use tumblers that we can reuse. This is very important for all of us to reduce the waste we produce," he said.
Saturday's event was organized as part of the commemoration of National Waste Awareness Day, which is observed on February 21 every year. The event was joined both online and offline by thousands of students of Al-Muhajirin Islamic Boarding School.
