Evaluating the Suitability of Zero-Waste Stores Implementation in Indonesian Context

The world have many environmental problems, especially the amount of trashes in landfills or in the oceans. Indonesia is a developing country that is also dealing with this problem. Many are coming up with creative ideas to overcome this problem. One of them is the creation of Zero-Waste Stores that aims to remove plastic packaging waste by selling their goods in bulk and customer can bring their containers when they shop. It has operating fairly well in the European region; however, the situation in Indonesia has not been previously researched. Through extensive interviews with store owners and suppliers in Java and Bali island, current operations of Zero-Waste Stores in Indonesia can be understood and are presented in this study. Customers’ perspective about this concept are also captured through questionnaire survey. This research shows that the current operation of Zero-Waste Stores are fairly acceptable by the customers, showing positive response in their experiences. Even though its main goal is to reduce packaging waste, this research shows that they are only able to reduce 2.34% of the plastic packaging waste generated with the present situation. Furthermore, the environmental impact of shopping in Zero-Waste Stores are actually higher compared to shopping in traditional retail due to the very few number of stores available today. Nevertheless, Zero-Waste Stores might be a promising solution in plastic packaging reduction if the stores are able to overcome these existing challenges