IO, Jakarta – Kao Indonesia, a consumer goods company originating from Japan with its flagship Merries brand, partnered strategically with the West Jakarta Municipal Administration and Waste Management Technology Company, to support the Movement for Processing Used Baby Diapers for the Future of the Environment, by inviting and mobilized 1,000 mothers in 28 integrated health centers (posyandu) in West Jakarta.
At present, disposable baby diapers are one of the main needs of mothers with a baby, so choosing the right baby diapers is very important. But in Indonesia, especially in some areas, there are still many people who are accustomed to throwing baby diapers into a river, which not only has the potential to pollute the environment but also harms health.
This is the background of Merries’ initiative, as the only baby diaper in Indonesia that has been clinically tested by the Association of Indonesian Skin and Gender Specialists to initiate the “Environment-Friendly Merries” program to educate and encourage the public, especially mothers, to dispose of used baby diapers in their place, and implementing the Used Baby Diapers Processing Movement for the Future of the Environment. As a main concrete action, Merries collects used baby diapers in several areas in West Jakarta to be reprocessed into something more useful. Used baby diapers will later become fiber and oil.
In his remarks, Inad Luciawaty, the wife of the Mayor of West Jakarta and Chair of the West Jakarta City Administrative Team PKK Activator, stressed the importance of this initiative. “Waste has become one of the main social and health problems in metropolitan cities in Indonesia. Ideally, social initiative programs related to environmental health and hygiene issues must be addressed from upstream to downstream, starting from the education of mothers to technology in tackling the waste, to create a more pronounced impact of social action,” she said.
Susilowati, VP Marketing, Kao Indonesia, said that this event was a concrete manifestation of Kao Indonesia’s commitment to continue to have a positive impact on the environment. “One of them is by reducing the waste of used baby diapers. With integrated initiatives and ongoing cooperation with stakeholders, we hope to continue to improve the quality of life of the community, while at the same time contributing to the sustainable, environment,” she explained.
Kao Indonesia is working with Waste Management Technology Company to process used baby diapers into oil to re-operate the used baby diaper recycle machine and the fibers obtained are processed into concrete blocks for construction materials and also pots for plants, so that social action programs like this become a full circle by providing valuable benefits to the community and the environment.
For more than 34 years, Kao Indonesia has been present by providing quality products to meet the needs of consumers. Amid global problems such as global warming and waste issues, Kao Indonesia continues to pay attention to the environmental impact of all business activities carried out. Kao Indonesia continues to make “Innovations for Care” by providing products and services that are supported by humanist technology as a form of corporate concern for society and a more sustainable environment.
“We hope that the inauguration program ‘Merries Smile the Environment’ this morning can be a motivation for Merries to always commit to smiling to babies in Indonesia and at the same time be able to smile to the environment, and maintain the continuity of health and welfare of the people of Indonesia,” said Susilowati.