The authorities in the nation of 260 million are battling a lack of recycling culture or environmental awareness to achieve an ambitious target of a 70 percent cut in marine plastic debris by 2025, despite having devoted US$1 billion (S$1.36 billion) a year to the task. Yet the river is just one of many thickly carpeted with trash formed mostly of plastic waste, of which Indonesia churns out about 3.2 million tonnes each year, with nearly half ending up in the sea, a 2015 study in the journal Science showed. The archipelago of more than 17,000 islands is estimated to be the world's second-largest contributor of plastic pollutants in the oceans after China, the study added.

Indonesia battles to clean up trash-filled rivers. (2019, January 24). BusinessWorld, p. S2/9.