In Indonesia, plastic constitutes the second largest component of municipal solid waste; however, 58% remains uncollected. Most plastic recycling depends on informal sectors, accounting for only 10% of the total, leaving the remainder to potentially harm the environment. This paper analyzes how cities in Indonesia have tackled their plastic waste problems from the perspective of the integrated sustainable waste management framework. This study focuses on plastic waste management (PWM) in three cities: Bandung, Yogyakarta, and Magelang. Data were collected from 41 semi-structured interviews, a plastic waste composition data analysis, and site visits. The research outcomes include a comprehensive analysis of stakeholder roles, plastic waste flow, plastic waste composition data, and various challenges in PWM. This study identifies three main stakeholders in collecting plastic wastes: the Department of Environment as the main local government body, community-based waste banks, and private waste management companies. Most recyclable plastic waste is recovered through waste banks and private collection services. In 2022, the predominant types of plastic waste in Bandung, Yogyakarta, and Magelang City were soft plastics, thick plastics, and hard plastics, respectively. The challenges for the PWM stem from various aspects in political, legal, and institutional; environmental; financial and technical; and socio-cultural spheres. Positive trends towards an integrated system are observed, although full integration has not yet been achieved. The research recommends a multi-stakeholder cooperative approach involving municipal authorities, waste banks, and private collectors, responsive to local conditions and emphasizing sustainability aspects throughout waste management stages for a sustainable resource recycling in developing countries.

Plastic pollution is an urgent and growing threat to human and planetary health. Rivers transport large volumes of plastic pollution across and between Earth's systems, providing opportunistic and strategic focal points for collection and quantitative assessments of plastic debris. A dearth of empirical, in situ studies of riverine plastic debris in scientific literature highlights the need for more research conducted in rivers across diverse contexts to better understand riverine plastic debris and inform upstream solutions. We present and analyze a dataset on macroplastic debris collected over three years (2020-2023) in a nearly continuous and synchronous fashion from eight diverse river systems in eight countries across four continents. We observed the majority (66 %) of the 3.8M kg of debris collected and analyzed in these river systems to be plastic. The compositions of polymers, single-use plastic items, and end-of-life fates of the collected plastic debris varied substantially between river systems. We discuss how differences in socioeconomic, regulatory, and infrastructure conditions across study sites begin to explain some of the observed variation. From these data insights, we share local and global recommendations for actions that could help reduce the flow of plastic debris into rivers in the first place. This research adds to our growing understanding of plastic pollution locally in these specific river systems as well as globally at a moment when the international community is actively working towards a global policy instrument to end plastic pollution.