Enhancing Millennial Awareness Towards Marine Litter Through Environmental Education

¹ Marine Science Department, Teuku Umar University, Meulaboh, West Aceh Regency, Aceh Province, Indonesia
² Agrotechnology Department, Teuku Umar University, Meulaboh, West Aceh Regency, Aceh Province, Indonesia
³ Marine Science and Fishery Faculty, Raja Ali Haji Maritime University, Indonesia
⁴ Marine Science and Fishery Faculty, Bogor Agricultural Institute, Bogor, Indonesia

^* Corresponding author: ikakusumawati@utu.ac.id

Abstract

One of the influencing factors is the community behavior which reflected public practices in littering. Children are social capital for the community and the essential agents of social change. However, they have issues in recognizing the foundation and the explanation of the environmental problem. The research objectives; to examine millennial perception towards marine litter and the influence of environmental education towards youth perceptions in West Aceh. This study employed a survey approach by distributing questionnaires to 150 respondents from several senior high schools. The data is collected by a questionnaire survey (self-administrative or face-to-face) from January 2019 to June 2019. The researcher distributed questionnaires to students to assess the level of awareness of marine litter. The questionnaire was distributed in two sessions, namely: the first session was before environmental education is given to students; the second session was distributed when students completed environmental education It was found that respondents show low awareness of marine litter according to statistical data but the marine litter short workshop significantly has a positive impact. It concludes that increasing youth awareness through education can be an opening step in combating marine litter to then integrate with approaches to achieve a clean sea.