Jakarta Environmental Service Head Asep Kuswanto said on Saturday that his office views BRIN's findings as a warning that requires an immediate and collaborative response.
"Plastic pollution does not end in rivers or seas — it has reached Jakarta's sky," he said.
To address the issue, the city government has tightened plastic waste control and integrated air and rainwater quality monitoring.
It has also enforced a policy requiring green shopping bags, launched waste reduction programs, expanded waste banks, and promoted community-based plastic recycling initiatives.
"Plastic reduction must start from the source — from households, industries, and service sectors. Everyone has their own role," Kuswanto said.
He added that the city administration is working with BRIN to expand microplastic monitoring in air and rainwater, which will be integrated into the Jakarta Environmental Data Integration (JEDI) platform.
The provincial government will also strengthen its public campaign "Jakarta Without Plastic in Air and Land" to encourage residents to reduce single-use plastic, sort waste at home, and avoid burning garbage.
Kuswanto urged businesses, research institutions, and environmental groups to join hands in reducing plastic pollution and developing waste recycling innovations.
"We are open to research collaborations, from filtration technology to green product development," he said, emphasizing that keeping Jakarta's sky free of microplastics is a shared responsibility.
Earlier, BRIN reported that harmful microplastic particles were detected in Jakarta's rain following a study of rainwater samples collected since 2022.
BRIN researcher Muhammad Reza Cordova explained that the particles result from atmospheric deposition, in which airborne plastics mix with the water cycle and fall back with the rain.
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Translator: Lifia Mawaddah Putri, Nabil Ihsan
Editor: Anton Santoso
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