Berita

Yogyakarta, (10/16/2010). Located on the beach of New Bantul, international students of the program of governmental studies (IGOV-UMY) and students from the United States to do beach cleaning activities by picking up the scattered along the beach. “We are devoted to collecting plastic waste, this is a form of education to students, because the plastic waste cannot be decomposed by the soil, will not decompose in decades” explained Rechel, mentor of American students.
In addition to the form of education, the activity is also as a form of concern for the environment around the new beach, considering the tourist attraction is growing every day, but there is still a lot of garbage scattered on the sand. “We are very grateful to be helped to clean up the garbage here, considering we are developing an eco-tourism program, but it is still difficult to manage the environment here, there are still many local tourists who simply throw garbage in the sand,” explained mbah Mun, the new beach manager.
Clean-up activities, followed by 11 IGOV students and 11 American students, each participant paired with a garbage bag. One American student, Isabel Enriched, expressed his happiness to participate in the clean up of the garbage.
According to him, prior to this activity, Isabel never cared about the plastic bags she often used when shopping in mini-market mini-market around Chicago where she lived, but after knowing how severe the plastic is parsed, it is crucial to managing plastic waste at home, or it’s important not to use it at all by carrying bags from home when shopping. “It is important for us to manage all plastic litters and it is better to reduce the plastic bag in our daily life” he explained.
This plastic clean-up activity is part of a partnership between IGOV-UMY students and American students for three weeks in Yogyakarta, where 13 of the American students are paired with 13 IGOV-UMY Students to exchange information and explore insights about Indonesian culture. It is expected that this partnership will be a way to further internationalise IGOV students in broader association with an extensive network of friends.
Reported by: Rijal Ramdani