Based on their concerns on the abundant plastic waste produced by practical activities, a team consists of Diploma Forest Management students innovate to create a seeding container (polybag) replacement, namely Polytube Bagormaling, to reduce plastic waste pollution that is produced during nursery. This innovation is one of the results of Students Creativity Programme which is funded by Indonesian Ministry of Research, Technology, and Higher Education.
“We feel sad to see the plastic used for making polybags is just thrown away in the seedbed. We are supposed to support the environment by planting trees but unfortunately, we turn out to add the plastic waste,” said Anisa Haryani, the team leader.
This innovation started when she and her friends, namely Alfian Dwi Cahyo, Ika Mediyahati, Najieh Safier Ibrahim, and Bayu Prasetio, were concerned about the abundant waste generated by plastic-based polybags that were used during their study. All this while, after being used, the black-plastic-polybag is just thrown away. Plastic is hard to decompose and it will take tens or even hundreds years, thus it will just get buried and cause losses for the nursery. This issue encourages them to create an innovation that can replace the plastic-based polybag with the organic-based one which is eco-friendly and can give positive impacts to the nursery.
“Besides eco-friendly and easy to decompose, our product can encourage the growth of the plant which is planted in the product as well as provide a planting media in the form of compost and Trichoderma fertilizer. Trichoderma fertilizer can prevent pathogens that cause the root to rot which usually affects young plants. From the artistic aspect, this product can also be used as a planting media for ornamental plants and it is suitable to be hanged in the house,” said Alfian.
They hope this product can be produced massively and used in all nurseries which produce the seedlings or seeds of forest plants, thus they can significantly reduce the black plastic waste in the future.
“Currently, we are looking for institutions that want to be our partners to produce our product massively,” he added.