Since Jakarta Archdiocese introduced an anti-plastic waste campaign back in 2006, many parishes and individuals have taken it seriously. The campaign to “collect waste, and make it a blessing” has inspired many Catholics, including Lucia Mona Hartari Windoe from the Holy Family Parish in Rawamangun, East Jakarta.

In February 2016, Mona launched a waste management program called the Bhakti Semesta Waste Bank in her parish, just as the country marked its 10th National Waste Care Day.

Through the initiative, she encouraged Catholics in her parish to collect their plastic waste, instead of throwing it away and creating an environmental problem.

She said a waste bank is not a place where people dump their garbage, but rather an initiative to help parishioners who have waste at their homes but do not know what to do with it.

The goal is to raise people’s awareness to care for the environment, and at the same time make a profit out of waste, she said.

In doing so, with the support of her parish priest, she cooperated with the East Jakarta Environment Agency who provided trucks to pick the waste up.