Indonesia and its plastic waste problems
While estimates about potential benefits of implementing a circular economy in Indonesia have been calculated, more pressing issues are already there. As the world’s largest island nation, Indonesia’s archipelago stretches for over 8 million square kilometers in area, of which 76.38 percent of it is water.
Although much of the nation’s economy and livelihood is dependent on the sustainability of marine and coastal areas, Indonesia’s marine ecosystem continues to be at threat of marine littering, due to the rapid increase of single-use packaging and ineffective waste management systems that had remained unchecked over the years.
Reports have said Southeast Asia’s largest economy is responsible as one of the world’s largest contributors to plastic waste leakage into the oceans. Each year, the country generates around 42 million tons of municipal waste and 7.8 million tons of plastic waste, of which 4.9 million tons of the latter are continually mismanaged; going uncollected, disposed improperly, or leaked from formal landfills, according to a World Bank’s report published on May 20, 2021.
“From an estimated 201.1 to 552.3 kilotons of plastic waste that are discharged into Indonesia’s marine environment annually, 83 percent of it come from land-based sources and are carried through Indonesia’s intricate river systems, whereas the remaining 17 percent are derived from discarded wastes from coastal areas,” key finding of the World Bank’s report titled Plastic Waste Discharges from Rivers and Coastlines in Indonesia said.
According to data from the Ministry of Environment’s National Waste Management Information System (SIPSN), Indonesia’s total waste stockpile in 2021 reached 24 million tons. This number has decreased by 13.48 percent from the previous years. However, this percentage is still far from the government’s target of a 30 percent reduction in waste and 70 percent waste management by 2025.
In a webinar discussion initiated by PT. Waste4Change Alam Indonesia (Waste4Change) the waste management for flexible packaging plastic waste (FPPW) in the Jakarta region is already at an alarming rate, as the FPPW dominates about three quarters of the waste leaked to the environment.
Flexible packaging plastic waste includes a waste stream that includes plastic films, bags, flexible food packaging (including mono-layered and multi-layered) and other single-use flexible plastics.
“A research from Waste4Change from five districts of Jakarta found that 87.52 percent or equivalent to 244.72 tons per day of flexible packaging waste still ends up at the landfills (TPA). Only 2.99 percent of flexible packaging plastic waste were recycled, 0.78 percent processed into waste power plants and 8.72 percent were not handled,” said Anissa Ratna Putri, Consulting Manager at Waste4Change.
Indonesia’s regulations to deal with waste problem
Eka Hilda, a junior expert at the Waste Management Directorate, at Indonesia’s Ministry of Environment and Forestry, said the Regulation No. P.75/MENLHK/SETJEN/KUM NUMBER.1/10/2019 from the Minister of Environment and Forestry Republic of Indonesia concerning Road Waste Map by Producer aims to minimize the piling up of the flexible packaging plastic waste in Indonesia.
The regulation, she said, mandates producers to also take responsibility in waste management, active in waste recycling and reuse of the plastic waste. Eka Hilda said the Ministerial Regulation’s key messages are in line with the The United Nations Environment Assembly’s resolution to end plastic pollution and the regulation also fits with the concept of Circular Economy.
Eka Hilda said in the country, the Drug and Food Regulator (BPOM) is the one that monitors producers as it requires them to put on the detail of ingredients of any products in their product packaging.
“We expect that with this regulation (Ministerial Regulation LHK P.75/2019), producers can explain, in detail, the materials they use in the product packaging. They (producers) also need to inform (BPOM) about how they plan to recollect the waste after (the product) has been used,” she said.