JAKARTA, 1 December 2020 — In 2019, Indonesia received worldwide attention because the Bantar Gebang TPA (Final Disposal Site) in Bekasi City, West Java was considered the largest TPA in the world, which was later confirmed by Bekasi Mayor Rahmat Effendi. This is because waste management in many areas in Indonesia (not only at the Bantar Gebang landfill) is still oriented towards final disposal sites, so that waste accumulates.
Most of the landfills in Indonesia also still rely on the open dumping system, which means littering in any available area, so that this has impacts ranging from poor air quality, clean water, to diseases for residents who live in the vicinity.
Regarding the landfill issue, the Yok Yok Ayok Daur Ulang! program (in English: Let’s Do Recycling!) again carried out its series of educational webinars on solutions to the plastic waste problem on December 1, 2020 with the topic “Can landfills without plastic waste in Indonesia be achieved with a single-use plastic ban? The Importance of the Role of Local Government", involving several sources including Deputy Mayor of Tegal Muhammad Jumadi.
Every day the residents of Tegal City produce 250 tons of waste and 30 percent of it is plastic waste, but only 10 percent is able to be sent to the recycling industry, the rest ends up in the landfill. "There are also 214 tons of total landfill waste, as well as 16 tons of inorganic waste volume in the city of Tegal. Of this amount, only 10% can be sent to the recycling industry and the rest will end up in the landfill," said Deputy Mayor of Tegal Muhammad Jumadi.
We should abandon the culture of disposing of waste that ends up in landfills, considering the amount of waste that often increases and starts to fill the environment. Because of this, the Tegal City Government is committed to waste management and the environment which is a complex problem for almost all regions, this can be realized by the City of Tegal by implementing article 12 of Law number 18 of 2008 concerning Waste Management. Starting from waste management at 21 TPS with the 3R principle (reduce, reuse, recycle), utilizing plastic bag waste for raw materials for shoes and other crafts. In fact, the roads in the Tegal City Hall Complex are made of asphalt mixed with plastic waste," he said.
According to the Deputy Mayor of Tegal, solving the problem of plastic waste must be resolved from upstream to downstream and as a whole, not just from one side, such as a ban.
"An integrated and circular system is needed between various parties so that the problem of waste, especially plastic waste in Tegal City, can be resolved at the household level and at TPS 3R. So that only residual waste that cannot be processed will be disposed of in the TPA, not a ban on the use of plastic," he added.
Prispolly Lengkong, National Chairman of the Indonesian Scavengers Association (in Indonesian: IPI), who is close to the Bantar Gebang landfill, also commented that, “The scavenger profession relies on waste segregation, and several types of waste have economic value, including plastic and PS Foam. IPI itself has also made various efforts to reduce waste at the Bantar Gebang TPA by sorting and processing it which involved more than 6,000 scavengers."
"Currently TPA is a method of disposing of waste in many areas in Indonesia, and sooner or later waste will accumulate more and more, so as scavengers, we need support from the government, companies and the community to be able to overcome the problem of reducing landfill waste," he added. Scavengers have an important role when talking about waste management as people who understand how to sort waste and its economic value.
In the same webinar, Wahyudi Sulistya, Director of Kemasan Group also participated, he said, "The policy of banning the use of single-use plastics does not necessarily affect the reduction of plastic waste in landfills. Preventing plastic waste from ending up in the landfill must be carried out thoroughly. As of today, any type of waste without segregation other than glass and glass can already be recycled through predatory machines, the end result of which can become briquettes for alternative energy-class burning coal.
According to Wahyudi, moreover, there is no substitute for plastic in terms of carbon emissions, function, durability and price. Replacement packaging bags that are currently an option and are widely used for packaging, such as spunbond or paper bags also have a layer of Polypropylene or PP plastic, which makes the bag water-proof.
With regard to real solutions related to waste management, stated by the Deputy Mayor of Tegal City, the Tegal City Environment Service has worked with several stakeholders to carry out waste management projects to realize a total solution to waste problems in Tegal City, one of which is with ADUPI, INAPLAS, PT. Trinseo Materials Indonesia, and Kemasan Group.
"Local governments play an important role in harmonizing the synergy between the private sector, government, communities and society in handling waste management by implementing the laws that have been regulated. With the success of the Tegal City pilot project which has succeeded in managing 10 tons of waste per day and being used as briquettes to substitute for coal used by industry, we hope that other local governments can see the waste problem in their respective regions further and more holistically, so that, solving the problem waste is resolved in its entirety through waste management, not just banning it,” said the Deputy Mayor.
Tegal City has been running a pilot project for approximately 3 months, and will soon evaluate the results of its waste management. Environmental problems are an important issue and need to be given great attention, because it will have an impact on many aspects of people's lives if neglected.
Therefore, Muhammad Jumadi as Deputy Mayor of Tegal, fully supports the solution to environmental problems and plastic waste by enforcing comprehensive waste management, so that in the future waste will not accumulate in any TPA.
This discussion is the second in a series of a total of 12 educational webinars that will be conducted by YYADU! which the program itself has received various kinds of support both from organizations, government and private. This time, YYADU! in collaboration with several parties including the Paket Group on an end-to-end waste management pilot project in Tegal City which will be evaluated in the near future.
“Educational programs such as those carried out by Yok Yok Ayok Daur Ulang! are very good so that people can open their eyes to the real solution to the problem of plastic waste," said Deputy Mayor of Tegal Muhammad Jumadi at the end of the webinar.
