JAKARTA, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia hosted a 2-day East Asia Summit (EAS) Conference on sea garbage in resort island of Bali, attended by representatives of EAS member countries, ASEAN, delegations from private sector, scholars and related institutions.
"Around 80 percent of sea garbage were originated from the land, caused by less-effective garbage management and misbehavior of people living in coastlines to manage plastic garbage across the world," Jose Tavares, director General for ASEAN Cooperation at Indonesian Foreign Ministry, said in his remarks in the conference.
He added that 12.7 million metric tons of plastic garbages were littered to the sea each year, have polluted the sea and endangered the environment and sustainability of all walks of life as well.
In this regard, Jose pointed out that EAS should play an active and pivotal role in seeking concrete and applicable solutions to address the sea garbage issue.
Indonesia has set initiatives, formed the National Action Plans to address the sea garbage issue, targeting to reduce its sea garbage by 70 percent before 2025.
Among the programs put in the action plans is the use of processed plastic garbage in road project, called plastic tar road. The pilot project of the program has been conducted in Bali with plans to apply it in other regions.
The other programs were the development of bio plastic made of cassava and seaweeds, garbage to energy projects and empowerment of "garbage bank" on grass root level.
The conference was to follow suit the EAS Statement on Enhancing Regional Maritime Cooperation initiated by Indonesia in 2015.
EAS is a regional dialogue and cooperation forum now joined by 10 ASEAN member countries and China, Japan, South Korea, the United States, Australia, India, Russia and New Zealand.
