Indonesia's trash satellites - 9th December 2020

Indonesia allows more waste to enter the ocean than any other country apart from China. 620,000 tonnes of plastic are dumped into the country's rivers, which then take the rubbish out to sea.

The government plans to reduce this figure by two thirds in the next 5 years.

The Indonesian Maritime Affairs Ministry is working with CLS, which is a subsidiary of the French space agency. Satellite beacons are being released at the mouths of rivers around Indonesia. These trackers float like trash to identify where it goes. Every hour, they ping data to a satellite. The satellite transmits this information to a centre in France.

Jean-Baptiste Voisin is the head of CLS in Indonesia.

Voisin: "Most of them, 90 percent of them are actually beached on the Javanese coast here, ok, and only those - that one actually went to the, to that direction."

The research shows that much of the waste lands back on the country's coastline. Happily, this makes it easier for the government to put waste collection traps at key locations.

However, there is still 10 per cent of the rubbish which won't be so easy to collect.

Voisin: "Some of the one that we are released six months ago are still, are still drifting. Unfortunately, I would like to say, because it means they are still in the ocean, and most probably it means that most of those marine debris will, will reach all the, the big accumulation of plastic that we are all aware of, either in the Indian ocean Indian or Pacific, Pacific ocean."