He made these remarks while attending a sea and coast-cleaning activity at the Sunda Kelapa Port in Jakarta.
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The activity carried out by the Transportation Ministry through the Directorate General of Sea Transportation is expected to reduce plastic waste.
The activity is aimed not only at breaking the Indonesian World Records Museum (MURI) record but also at lowering Indonesia's rating as the world's second largest garbage producer, he said.
It is time to change the mindset of people who treat the sea as the backyard of their house and turn it into the clean and beautiful front porch of their house, he said.
With the change in mindset, the public awareness of not disposing of waste into the sea will improve, he said.
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In the future, the Transportation Ministry will adopt a standard operating procedure (SOP) for all types of ships not to dispose of waste into the sea. Besides, plastic waste must be recycled so that it will not be a danger to the environment before being destroyed, he said.
"I want this activity not merely to be symbolic. But in the future, we will make a joint SOP along with relevant stakeholders including INSA (the Association of Indonesian National Shipping Companies) to prevent ships from throwing out waste into the sea," he said.
During the activity, the minister also conducted a video teleconference with eight ports in the country including Ambon, Bitung, Balikpapan, Benoa, Makasar, Sabang, Tanjung Emas, and Belawan.
The minister called on all port officers across the country to keep the Indonesian sea and coast clean.
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Translator: Ahmad Wijaya, Suharto
Editor: Azizah Fitriyanti
Copyright © ANTARA 2019
