Jakarta (Greeners) – Developing circular economy is the focus of Ministry of Environment and Forestry to tackle waste issue. The concept is expected to reduce waste volume in landfill and creating new economic opportunities.
“We gave high economic potential for this waste issue. This huge potential will not be a productive energy or circular economy but will be wasted energy at landfills or idle energy without one system in public. So, the key is behavioral change in society,” said Director of Waste Management, Novrizal Tahar, in Jakarta on Thursday (02/08/2018).
People are expected to sort the waste to reuse the resources or productive energy, including materials that can be used as raw goods.
“For instance, our paper industry still import recycle papers for six to seven tons per year to meet demands because we can only supply 5,000 tons. So, you can imagine that this is a huge energy but neglected and thrown away in trash bins,” he said.
Tahar also said multiplying waste collecting system through waste banks, supports from informal sector, and local government role can encourage behavioral changes in waste management.
Executive director of Indonesian Pulp and Paper Association, Liana Bratasida, said that paper factories will be pleased to get good quality paper trash for recycling and no longer importing them. Paper wast is defined as paperboard obtained from industries or households which have already been collected and sorted for recycling.
“They should be sorted between paper, cardboard, and paper, starting from households, offices, hospitals, and collected to neighborhood unit or working with waste collectors and stalls. Currently, there are 70 paper factories operating in Indonesia, of which 50 of them using recycling papers however supply for recycled paper is high and we cannot fulfill the demands. So, like or not, we need to import,” said Bratasida.
Based on APKI data, demand for recycle paper reached 5,321,544 tons in 2017, however, used papers available in the country only 3,129,355 tons meanwhile 2,192,199 tons are imported (trade map 2017).
Bratasida said paper factories are willing to accept high quality waste papers, however, there are lots people mixed the wastes with water to get more money as the waste will get heavier. These types of paper, she said, will not be accepted by paper companies, hence, reducing supply.
“Domestic waste paper supply can be increased from the source, is there’s a regulation,” she said.
Types of recycled papers in Indonesia are Old Corrugated Container (OCC), Sorted Office Paper (SOP), Sorted White Ledger (SWL), Mixed Paper, Old Newspaper (ONP), Old Magazine Paper (OMP) which can be obtained at waste banks (0.08 percent), Paper Industry Cluster (0.49 percent), Recycle Paper Baling Station as supplier (99,43 percent).
Reports by Dewi Purningsih