Indonesia's rubbish problem - 9th December 2020

Indonesia lets a lot of rubbish go in the sea. Every year, 620,000 tonnes of plastic are thrown into Indonesia's rivers. The rubbish then goes into the ocean.

In the next 5 years, the government hopes to cut this number by over 60 per cent.

Scientists want to follow the rubbish. Then, they can understand the problem better.

The scientists are getting help from part of the French space agency, CLS. It is making satellite beacons which are placed in Indonesia's rivers. These trackers travel with the trash. Every hour, a satellite receives data from these trackers. The information is collected in France.

Jean-Baptiste Voisin manages CLS.

Voisin: "Most of them, 90 percent of them are actually beached on the Javanese coast here, ok, and only those - that one actually went to the, to that direction.”

There is some positive news in data from the trackers. Most of the rubbish ends up on the coast. This means it is easy to collect.

But 10 per cent of the rubbish travels further out into the ocean.

Voisin: "Some of the one that we are released six months ago are still, are still drifting. Unfortunately, I would like to say, because it means they are still in the ocean, and most probably it means that most of those marine debris will, will reach all the, the big accumulation of plastic that we are all aware of, either in the Indian ocean Indian or Pacific, Pacific ocean."