Description: On July 18 2024, the Principal of the Vocational High School, Muhlas Efendi, launched a new facility in the form of a Water Station at three points in the school (Doc. @ecobhinneka.banyuwangi)
All residents of Muhammadiyah 8 Siliragung Vocational High School, Banyuwangi, East Java, commonly known as SMK MODELS continue striving to control single-use plastic waste. On July 18, 2024, the Principal of the Vocational High School, Muhlas Efendi, launched a new facility in the form of a Water Station at three points in the school so that all school residents can refill their drinking water by bringing their own tumblers. “Controlling plastic waste in schools is important, because plastic is waste that is difficult to decompose over hundreds of years, so there is no other way but to get used to re-using steps, one of which is by reusing our drinking water containers,” explained Muhlas.
Not only that, the Principal firmly instructed that the school community must try to reduce the use of plastic, including making regulations for canteens to provide reusable containers, reducing single-use plastic, and asking the person in charge of the canteen coordinator to follow up on this. The reason is, according to Mukhlas, that every day the waste generated at school by more than a thousand school residents is certainly not small, so it is necessary to form a habit of minimal waste, and school stakeholders need to develop special rules so that plastic waste control can be carried out.
Description: The Principal of Muhammadiyah 8 Siliragung Vocational High School, Muhlas Efendi, asked to the all school resident to re-use their drinking water container through refill it at the Water Station, so it can reduce the single-use plastic. (Doc. @ecobhinneka.banyuwangi)
Meanwhile, the Treasurer of the Vocational High School, Zahrotul Janah, explained the other facilities the school has to reduce plastic use. “The school also provides striped glasses to replace paper cups which are usually used for coffee breaks for teachers when holding workshops or meetings,” she explained. “This greatly reduces the plastic waste that is usually produced, apart from that it also reduces the budget for purchasing paper cups,” said Zahrotul who is also active as a Regional Facilitator of Eco Bhinneka Nasyiatul Aisyiyah Banyuwangi and Secretary of AMONG (Interfaith Youth of Blambangan Eco Bhinneka)
Muhammadiyah 8 Siliragung Vocational High School is also a school assisted by Muhammadiyah and Nasyiatul Aisyiyah’s Eco Bhinneka program which actively participates in environmental actions by continuing to develop environmental young cadres. As stated by Windarti, Secretary I of Central Board of Nasyiatul Aisyiyah (PPNA). “By being active at Eco Bhinneka School, we hope that the Muhammadiyah 8 Siliragung Vocational High School will increasingly be able to internalize the vision and mission of Eco Bhinneka into school activities. Caring for inter-religious harmony has been realized with the presence of non-Muslim students and teachers in schools, and now preserving the environment has been realized with various innovations and concrete efforts by providing Water Stations and instructions on prohibiting the use of single-use plastic containers in the school environment,” she said.
Furthermore, Winda, who is also active as the Regional Manager of Eco Bhinneka Nasyiatul Aisyiyah Banyuwangi, explained that in the near future the Eco Bhinneka Fun Camp will be held in collaboration with Orspala (Nature Guardian Student Organization) SMK MODELS, to provide knowledge strengthening by providing interesting material and discussions on the theme of harmony between friends of different religions at school while learning directly from the Waste Management Center to deal with plastic waste.
Description: Muhammadiyah 8 Siliragung Vocational High School is also a school assisted by Muhammadiyah and Nasyiatul Aisyiyah’s Eco Bhinneka program which actively participates in environmental actions by continuing to produce environmental cadres. (Doc. @ecobhinneka.banyuwangi)
Risma Triani, Chairman of the Muhammadiyah Student Association (IPM) Branch of SMK Muhammadiyah 8 Siliragung enthusiastically welcomed this facility, “This Water Station is very useful because we can refill drinking water at any time, especially since extra and intra activities usually last until the afternoon,” said woman who is currently entrusted as the Chief Executive of the 2024 Student Taaruf Forum Activities. “In the future, IPM must be a role model for discipline in carrying tumblers and suppressing new waste,” she continued.
It is hoped that the Water Station will become a means of getting school residents into the habit of carrying tumblers and reducing single-use plastic bottles. Reporting from Indonesia.go.id, the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) shows that plastic waste in Indonesia reaches 64 million tons per year. A total of 3.2 million tons of plastic waste is thrown into the sea. On the other hand, 10 billion plastic bags are thrown into the environment per year or 85,000 tons of plastic bags. This number places Indonesia in second place as the country with the largest amount of plastic waste pollution in the sea after China. SMK MODELS has now proven its real action to take part in the solution, not pollution.
Description: The Water Station Machine at Muhammadiyah 8 Siliragung Vocational High School. (Doc. @ecobhinneka.banyuwangi)
Author: Zahrotul Janah, Windarti
Editor: Dzikrina Farah Adiba
