After successfully conducting mangrove planting and Educplastic Camp last yeat, American Corner (Amcor) of Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta (UMY) collaborating with YSEALI and Library of UMY organized a campaign of #Zerostraw. It was an annual event held by Amcor of UMY to commemorate Earth Day. This year Amcor of UMY raised and tried to promote the issue of plastic, particularly straws. The campaign of #Zerostraw was conducted on 21-22 April 2018 at Goa Cemara, Bantul, Yogyakarta.

On Saturday (21/4) in Lapangan Bintang of UMY, in his remark, Director of American Corner and Warung Prancis of UMY Puthut Ardianto, M.Pd. stated, “UMY and I highly support this #Zerostraw.” The #Zerostraw is a campaign to reduce the use of plastic along seashore and to give an alternative to use biodegradable straw.

Puthut also explained that the number of people using the plastic is about thousands. “Divers Cleaning Action estimates that the use of straw has reached 93 million items per day,” he said. If we connect the straw, it can be 16.8 kilometers a day or 117 kilometers per week, three times as long as the circumference of the earth. He expected that the campaign can educate people about the dangers of plastics for the earth.

In fact, the #Zerostraw was initiated by one of the YSEALI Environment Montana 2017 alumni, Evi Nur Alviah who was also the project manager of the campaign. Evi mentioned that straw is included in ten types of waste in the sea. “Thus, as young generation, we have to care about the issue,” she maintained.

Evi also informed that Amcor of UMY opened call for paper and 30 participants from high school or higher education institutions in Yogyakarta were selected to contribute to the earth. “They are invited to join the two-day campaign,” she said. Besides, they did Amazing Trash that they were divided into several groups to clean plastic along the seashore.

Meanwhile, Head of Library of UMY Drs. Lasa HS, M.Si appreciated the campaign. He conveyed that it was the real contribution to overcome environmental issues. “I wish that the environmental issues can decrease. No matter how small it is, our contribution will bring a huge impact on society,” he expected.