ニュースで学ぶ現代英語 24/11/14(木)関連記事-富山の企業 バリに生ごみ処理プラント
Trash to treasure: Indonesian firm turns plastic into bricks
ゴミを宝に：インドネシアの企業がプラスチックをレンガに変える
A municipality worker collects garbage, most of which is plastic and domestic waste, along the shore of Jakarta.
ジャカルタの海岸沿いで、プラスチックや生活ゴミを回収する自治体職員。
Sep 4, 2023
JAKARTA – Ovy Sabrina fights plastic waste in Indonesia by spreading noodle packets, coffee sachets, straws and other trash around the sprawling archipelago- entombed in eco-friendly bricks.
Her family knows not to stand in her way on environmental issues, especially five years ago when she came up with the idea of making bricks using single-use plastic to counter pollution and the capital Jakarta’s high-emissions building boom.
Using machinery from her family’s conventional brick factory and tapping into her zero-waste lifestyle, Sabrina and her friend Novita Tan launched their green construction materials startup Rebricks in 2018.
“My family usually tell me to go ahead and do whatever I want. If people disagree with me, I will do it,” said the 37-year-old, who regularly locks horns with her siblings over sorting household waste and recycling in their shared home.
“‘Just do it’ is what we always tell people who want to get into recycling initiatives.”
With more than half the region’s population living in cities and rising, Asia’s urban population is soaring as wealth increases and people seek better lives- putting huge pressure on infrastructure, public services and affordable housing.
Bustling Jakarta, which has 10 million inhabitants, is dotted with construction sites that emit high levels of greenhouse gases, working on new train lines, malls, leisure complexes, apartments and offices.
But on the ground, residents vie with street-hawkers for space, and struggle with the city’s notorious traffic jams, regular flooding and choking air pollution.
2023年9月4日
ジャカルタ – オヴィー・サブリナは、麺のパック、コーヒーの小袋、ストロー、その他のゴミを環境に優しいレンガに埋め込んで、インドネシアのプラスチックゴミと闘っている。
特に5年前、彼女は公害と首都ジャカルタの高排出建築ブームに対抗するため、使い捨てプラスチックを使ったレンガ作りを思いついた。
実家の従来のレンガ工場の機械を使い、彼女の廃棄物ゼロのライフスタイルを活用し、サブリナは友人のノビタ・タンとともに2018年にグリーン建材のスタートアップ企業レブリックスを立ち上げた。
「私の家族はたいてい、私がやりたいことは何でもやりなさいと言ってくれます。もし反対されても、私はそれをやります」37歳の彼女は、共有の家で家庭ゴミの分別やリサイクルをめぐって兄弟と定期的に角を突き合わせている。
私たちはいつも、リサイクルの取り組みに参加したい人たちに、「とにかくやりなさい 」と言っています」。
この地域の人口の半分以上が都市に住み、増加の一途をたどっている。富が増え、人々がより良い生活を求めるようになるにつれ、アジアの都市人口は急増し、インフラ、公共サービス、手頃な価格の住宅に大きな負担がかかっている。
人口1,000万人の活気あふれるジャカルタには、新しい鉄道路線、ショッピングモール、レジャー施設、マンション、オフィスなど、温室効果ガスを大量に排出する建設現場が点在している。
しかし地上では、住民は路上で働く人たちと場所を奪い合い、悪名高い交通渋滞や定期的な洪水、息苦しい大気汚染と闘っている。
As Indonesia’s capital grows, waste collection and recycling services have struggled to keep pace.
Single-use plastics- such as drinking straws, confectionery packets, plastic bags and coffee sachets- are usually sent to already full landfill sites, burned by informal trash collectors, or simply thrown into the city’s canals.
Looking to tackle Indonesia’s twin challenges of trash and polluting urban growth, Rebricks made a breakthrough in late 2019 by creating a brick using single-use plastic waste that meets industry standards.
The company mixes volcanic ash, mountain stones, plastic waste donated from households across Indonesia, and cement to make its bricks, which do not contain sand like regular ones.
It supplies charities and other groups that build affordable homes and sanitation buildings for poorer communities.
The firm’s prices are competitive, while its bricks- long-lasting and strong as conventional bricks- are noncombustible, and the paving stones it also makes do not get slippery when wet, Sabrina said.
Rebricks’ website says it has production capacity of 100 sq meters a day.
But Sabrina declined to give details of sales, adding that production is limited by the company’s basic brick-making technique and labor-intensive machinery, with plastic waste donations often outstripping demand for bricks.
The startup- which uses social media to appeal for plastic waste- is in talks with the government to supply materials for subsidized housing projects.
“As a developing country, it’s impossible for us to say ‘don’t develop,'” said Sabrina.
“Development will keep on going, but at least if you recycle waste at the same time, it can help.”
-Construction part of climate solution
The buildings and construction sector is responsible for about 40% of global energy-related emissions- and reducing this will be vital for countries to meet their international climate and environmental pledges, industry experts said.
About half of the sector’s emissions come from construction and the rest from how buildings are heated or cooled, and powered, once in use.
The industry also accounts for 50% of all extracted materials, while cement production alone is responsible for 7% of global carbon emissions, said Lea Ranalder, part of the climate change team at U.N.-Habitat, a U.N. agency that promotes sustainable human settlements.
Less than 9% of the materials consumed by the sector are circular- recycled or re-used- leading to a “we build, we throw away” mentality, she noted.
“The buildings and construction industry is the overlooked giant when we talk about climate change and how we tackle climate change,” she said.
“Without really tackling the sector, when we talk about the climate crisis, we will not get there.”
Reforming the fragmented industry is complex. And many developers in Asia are focused on profits and affordability, with the perception that greener designs and building materials are expensive, industry experts said.
Constructing greener buildings pushes costs up by 3% to 5% depending on the type of building, said Jonathan Duwyn, a buildings and construction expert at the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP).
But over time, it becomes cheaper as the buildings cost less to run, he said, adding that “overall the cost is not much higher and the more we do it, the costs will go down.”
In addition, training the industry’s workforce- and ensuring that universities and architecture schools promote sustainability- is a huge opportunity to create well-paid green jobs, experts said.
“If governments make a commitment to invest and expand green building developments, this will incentivize construction workers to pursue these types of skills, knowing that there will be guaranteed work for them in the future,” said Nick Jeffries of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, which advocates for circular economies.
-Mix traditional and modern for greener cities
Indonesian architect Andi Subagio’s next project will be a pedestrian plaza outside one of Jakarta’s new mass rapid transit stations.
Sitting in a Jakarta restaurant he designed and built using Rebricks materials, Subagio – who is passionate about making his city more sustainable – said the eatery makes better use of natural ventilation rather than installing air conditioning.
The 33-year-old sees great benefits in combining both modern and traditional designs and building materials, adding that towering structures built with steel, concrete and glass are a relatively new trend.
“Traditional (designs) are where we can learn how to live more sustainably,” said Subagio, founder of SASO architecture studio.
UNEP’s Duwyn also said the industry should use fewer new materials in construction, and do more to extend the lifespan of existing buildings. Natural ventilation, using nature and adding shade are also vital to help cooling in a warmer world, he said.
For construction materials, he pointed to bio-based waste for insulation and sustainably logged wood as options.
Socially, however, it is often difficult to revive older technologies because many people feel that living in a modern concrete building signals success in life, he added.
Asia is home to some of the fastest-growing construction markets, and projects are picking up pace after a pause during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“There are plenty of green buildings being built but their construction is outpaced by less well-planned, less sustainably sourced, less well-designed projects at a variety of scales,” said Eli Elinoff, a lecturer in cultural anthropology at the Herenga Waka-Victoria University of Wellington.
Back in Jakarta, entrepreneur Sabrina said larger developers she has spoken to are often more focused on costs than the environment.
Such developers, which may build a thousand new homes for example, usually have preferred vendors for materials and often view trying something new as risky, she said.
Undeterred, Sabrina’s company plans to open a second factory in Central Java and another on the resort island of Bali this year- and she hopes to start teaching awareness of plastic waste in schools next year.
“Maybe we can replicate this on smaller islands in Indonesia, so we can create bigger impact,” she said.
plastic waste ˈplæstɪk weɪst プラスチック廃棄物
eco-friendly ˌiːkoʊ ˈfrɛndli 環境に優しい
high-emissions haɪ ɪˈmɪʃənz 高排出量
zero-waste ˈzɪroʊ weɪst 廃棄物ゼロ
green construction materials griːn kənˈstrʌkʃən məˈtɪəriəlz 環境に優しい建設資材
startup ˈstɑːrtʌp 新興企業
recycling initiatives riˈsaɪklɪŋ ɪˈnɪʃətɪvz リサイクルの取り組み
urban population ˈɜːrbən pɑːpjəˈleɪʃən 都市人口
infrastructure ˈɪnfrəˌstrʌkʧər インフラ
landfill sites ˈlændˌfɪl saɪts 埋立地
volcanic ash vɑːlˈkænɪk æʃ 火山灰
affordable housing əˈfɔːrdəbl ˈhaʊzɪŋ 手頃な価格の住宅
noncombustible ˌnɑːn kəmˈbʌstəbl 不燃性の
subsidized housing ˈsʌbsəˌdaɪzd ˈhaʊzɪŋ 補助住宅
climate solution ˈklaɪmət səˈluːʃən 気候解決策
energy-related emissions ˈɛnərʤi rɪˈleɪtɪd ɪˈmɪʃənz エネルギー関連の排出
sustainable settlements səˈsteɪnəbl ˈsɛtlmənts 持続可能な居住地
circular economy ˈsɜːrkjʊlər iˈkɑːnəmi 循環型経済
construction costs kənˈstrʌkʃən kɔsts 建設費
green jobs griːn ʤɑbz グリーンジョブ（環境関連職）
bio-based waste ˈbaɪoʊ-beɪst weɪst 生物由来の廃棄物
sustainably logged wood səˈsteɪnəbli lɔgd wʊd 持続可能な伐採木材
natural ventilation ˈnæʧərəl ˌvɛnɪˈleɪʃən 自然換気
training the workforce ˈtreɪnɪŋ ðə ˈwɜrkˌfɔrs 労働力の訓練
steel and concrete structures stil ænd ˈkɑnˌkrit ˈstrʌkʧərz 鉄とコンクリートの構造
cultural anthropology ˈkʌlʧərəl ˌænθrəˈpɑləʤi 文化人類学
smaller islands ˈsmɔlər ˈaɪləndz 小規模な島
teaching awareness ˈtiʧɪŋ əˈwɛrnəs 意識の教育
construction materials kənˈstrʌkʃən məˈtɪriəlz 建設材料
mass rapid transit mæs ˈræpɪd ˈtrænsɪt 大量高速輸送
sustainable city səˈsteɪnəbl ˈsɪti 持続可能な都市
sustainable human settlements səˈsteɪnəbl ˈhjumən ˈsɛtlmənts 持続可能な人間の住環境
building boom ˈbɪldɪŋ bum 建設ブーム
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