Diminishing plastic use is one of the ways to preserve the earth. American Corner (Amcor) of Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta (UMY) collaborating with Young Southeast Asian Leader Initiative (YSEALI) of the US Embassy conducted Plastic Educamp at Grogol, Godean, Sleman on Saturday and Monday (23-24/4). The educamp aimed at promoting the issue since only few people have been aware of decreasing the plastic use.

One of the participants, Muhammad Abas informed that there were 50 participants of the educamp that they were students of UMY, international students of UMY, youth organization, and several communities of envir onmentalists in Yogyakarta.

The educamp schedule was Plastic Recycle Workshop, Plastic Eduborn, Tree Planting, Plastic Hunt, and Plastic Talk. “The speaker of the Plastic Recycle Workshop is one of the environmentalists in Yogyakarta. He will discuss the plastic use. On Sunday, we have Tree Planting of avocados, longans, mangosteens, and others so that the fruits benefit the people,” Abas said.

He inserted, “In order that the people do not use plastic, during the activity, the participants are not allowed to use any equipment from plastic such as glass, plates, and plastic bags. The committee has been provided environmentally friendly bags,” Abas told.

The other schedule of the Plastic Educam is inviting the people to pick up trash. It was expected to rise the community awareness that it takes 200 years to decompose the plastic so that the effective way is recycling the plastic.

Rector of UMY, Prof. Bambang Cipto, M.A. highly supported the Plastic Educamp. In the formal ceremony of the Plastic Educamp on Saturday (23/4), he declared, “Burdens of the earth are getting hard, but only few people think of how to preserve the earth.”

He argued that Indonesia should be aware of the plastic use. Indeed, in developed counties such as the USA, the decrease of the plastic use has been carried out since 1998. “Americans have been aware of the plastic decomposition. When shopping, they get a brown paper bag instead of plastic,” Prof. Bambang informed.