Extending the Responsibility of Plastic Packaging Purchaser and Producer Companies and Willingness to Conserve the Material Value

Abstract

Plastics are widely used as the primary material in the production process for packaging products, both flexible and rigid packaging. In 2017, around 900 plastic packaging industries produced plastic packaging with a total of 4.68 million tons in Indonesia. Based on field observations, most plastic packaging products in the market do not follow the design criteria for material value conservation. In addition, the Indonesian legal framework regarding EPR that regulates producers' responsibility in reducing plastic waste already exists but has not been implemented, and there is no obligation to conserve the material values. This research aims to compile a description of the extended producer responsibility and explore the plastic packaging purchaser and producer companies' willingness to realize the material value conservation. Direct observation of 537 plastic packaging samples was carried out to obtain the distribution of samples for the plastic packaging residual value category. In addition, extended responsibility items for the two groups of companies were identified through literature review. From the survey results, the average RWI score of 3.88 indicates that overall, plastic packaging purchaser companies are somewhat willing to conserve the material values, and plastic packaging producers are somewhat willing to conserve the material value with the average RWI of 3.95.