Coca-Cola Europacific Partners Indonesia and the Indonesian Journalists Association Hold Simultaneous Garbage Collection Action in Several Cities in Sumatra

Coca-Cola Europacific Partners Indonesia (CCEP Indonesia), the Indonesian Journalists Association of Lampung region, and several elements of society held a simultaneous clean-up and waste sorting education in 16 locations spread across Sumatra and Java Sunday (16/7). "Sumatra Clean Up Get in Action" was also attended by representatives from the local government, community leaders, media partners, and CCEP Indonesia management representatives, who jointly carried out this activity. This activity has three main agendas: the Sumatra clean-up action and environmental discussion.

The clean-up action itself was carried out by targeting locations such as coastal areas, fishing villages, and rivers such as Harnas Beach Lampung, Karang Maritim Fishermen Village, Karang City Lampung, Keteguhan Bandar Lampung, Lempasing Lampung Fish Auction Market, Panjang Beach Bengkulu, Padang Beach West Sumatra, Syiah Kuala Aceh Graveyard Beach, Lamnyong Bridge Aceh, Deli River Medan North Sumatra, and Kuala Beach Pangkalpinang.

Besides the clean-up action, environmental discussions were also held with experts and key stakeholders. This session's main discussion topics were related to the tourism sector, waste, and circular economy. On the same occasion, CCEP Indonesia invited waste banks in the implementation locations to be directly involved in educating the community and socializing efforts to reduce waste from its source.

CCEP Indonesia's Head of Public Affairs, Dhedy A. Nugroho, said that this action program is a form of company support for the community's sustainable efforts in creating a clean, healthy and beautiful environment through the circular economy principle approach. Not only through environmental clean-up efforts, CCEP Indonesia also invites the community to further increase awareness of the importance of protecting the environment, through the socialization of good waste management, especially by carrying out waste sorting activities from home.

"Today's activity is part of CCEP Indonesia's commitment to waste management. This opportunity is also an effort to raise public awareness that if waste is managed properly, it will have a value that can be utilized. Thus, post-use goods or packaging do not end up in inappropriate places, such as polluting rivers and seas, and can even help reduce waste that ends up in landfills," said Dhedy in a speech connected online from the location of the activity in Jakarta.

They also added that changes in community behavior in terms of waste management are very much needed to deal with environmental problems, especially those related to efforts to deal with waste problems.

This activity also supports the development of tourism potential on the island of Sumatra. As one of the islands with a myriad of tourism potential, aspects of comfort, cleanliness, and natural beauty, are crucial things that need serious attention.

The clean-up action and environmental discussion received support and a positive response from the Indonesian Journalists Association. On the occasion, Atal Depari, Chairman of PWI Pusat, stated that he and the organization he leads also support clean-up activities and efforts to increase environmental awareness, especially concerning waste issues in Indonesia.

Journalists play an essential role in conveying actual and valid information and in efforts to increase public literacy about environmental awareness. In his remarks, Atal highly appreciated the joint clean-up activity initiated by PWI Lampung with Coca-Cola Europacific Partners Indonesia. "This is an extraordinary idea, an educational activity for the surrounding community. We agree that the waste problem is a shared responsibility. Thank you to Lampung Province for pioneering a culture of caring for waste," said Atal. He hopes this activity can be carried out and expanded during the upcoming National Press Day.

The local government also gave support and appreciation. Lampung Governor Arinal Junaidi appreciated the Sumatra Clean Up Get In Action activity through his written remarks read by Expert Staff for Economics, Finance, and Development of Lampung Province Zainal Abidin, conveying the importance of disseminating positive information that fosters optimism and enthusiasm to provide education to the community.

The trash pickup and environmental cleanup activities complemented similar actions in several other locations, which were held on the same day. In addition to several cities in Sumatra, activities were carried out in Jakarta, Bekasi, Bogor, and Bandung.

From the results of the waste sorting education activity involving the Sumatra Regional Indonesian Environmental Engineering Student Association, this time, a total of 1152 kg was collected consisting of 15 kg of paper, 481 kg of plastic, and 656 other residues. While 35 kg of PET beverage packaging.

This activity also involves multi-stakeholders called non-a-helix collaboration, including government, the business world, NGOs, academics, communities, banks, opinion leaders, and the media. On this occasion, CCEP Indonesia will involve waste banks to be directly involved in educating the community and socializing efforts to reduce waste from its source.

With the implementation of this cleanup activity, CCEP Indonesia's commitment to waste management positively impacts the environment and society. This step is part of creating a clean and sustainable environment and encouraging circular economy practices in Indonesia.