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Jakarta is racing to join other big cities like San Francisco, Seattle, Paris and Singapore that have already overcome their love affair with what green activists call white pollution — those ubiquitous plastic bags.

But can the nation’s capital — home to about 12 million people during the day — generate enough public and environmental awareness to help its citizens break their long-held plastic-bag habit?

If the answer is “yes” then it comes with a lot of conditions, says Slamet Daryoni, who, as the chief of urban environmental education at the Indonesian Green Institute, is among the cautious optimists.

“I’d say it is extremely possible, but here’s the catch: it won’t be as easy as turning your palm over,” Slamet said. “[The movement] is not solely dependent on what the Jakarta administration does, but also on other government departments and, at the other end of the scale, the contributions of individuals.

“The easiest way is to start from individual awareness by bringing our own bags to the supermarket,” he said.

Slamet said the government needed to work with major retailers, shopping malls and supermarkets to encourage consumers not to rely on plastic bags. They could do this by, for example, announcing that they would no longer provide plastic bags but would instead supply more environmentally friendly alternatives.

Public campaigns to promote the issue and encourage people to give up plastic bags are also important in changing habits, Slamet said, adding that Plastic-Free Days would be one way to accomplish this.

“They could put up big billboards to promote Plastic-Free Days and to remind consumers bring their own bags,” he said. “This approach could gradually change people’s habits.”

Slamet pointed out that there was a time when there were only traditional markets in the country, and people brought their own bags and baskets.

Governor Fauzi Bowo said on Monday that his administration had agreed to a proposal by the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) to reduce the use of plastic bags at stores across Jakarta. The governor said the city hoped to be free of plastic bags by 2011.

According to the Web site earthresource.org, each year an estimated 500 billion to one trillion plastic bags are used worldwide. That comes out to more than one million per minute. Billions end up as litter each year.

Slamet said he thought the movement could succeed. “It’s a lot easier to educate the public, or consumers, about the danger of plastic bags to the environment because people are already more aware and there are plenty of go-green movements targeting plastic bags,” he said.

“One year, I think, is enough time for the government to hold a massive campaign to push its [plastic-free] goal.”

The question, though, is whether it’s possible to live without plastic bags.

Yani Saloh, a member of Climate Project Indonesia, an initiative established by former US Vice President Al Gore, confessed that she had been trying to change her shopping habits for the last two years but still found it hard to remember to bring her own bag to the market.

“The biggest challenge is just how not to forget [to bring my own bag],” she said.

Major retailers such as Carrefour have offered eco-friendly plastic bags that sell for Rp 2,000 and reusable fabric bags for Rp 10,000, as well as cardboard boxes.

Yani said her lifestyle change was being supported by those retailers. “It helps a lot actually when the cashier asks me if I’d prefer to use one of their [eco-friendly] bags or a plastic bag,” she said, adding that she didn’t think she could ever be completely free from plastic.

Getting together with like-minded people also helps.

Inggita Notosusanto, for instance, considers herself lucky to have environmentally conscious friends.

“ I guess I’m very fortunate to have friends who care about this plastic issue, so we kind of remind each other to bring our own baskets and so on,” Inggita said .

“We should also realize that there are other alternatives and other ways of doing things rather than using plastic. ”

For the really environmentally aware, there is the perplexing question — plastic or paper?

To overcome white pollution, the choice is to use paper bags. But Slamet said that just creates another problem given that these days trees are more important than ever.

“[Using paper bags] creates another issue because just 15 reams of paper means cutting down one tree,” he said. “So we have to continue to look for better and better solutions, and I think there are lots of options.”

Slamet said there was a technology by which cassava starch could be used to make “plastic” bags that would degrade within one or two months. That innovation, however, is not yet commercialized due to business competition, he said.