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Other areas may copy Bali's waste system
Several regional heads in Indonesia have expressed interest in implementing an organic waste management system using recycling technology similar to the one currently being constructed in Bali, an executive of the waste management company said Saturday
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Several regional heads in Indonesia have expressed interest in implementing an organic waste management system using recycling technology similar to the one currently being constructed in Bali, an executive of the waste management company said Saturday.
The recycling technology transforms the waste into electricity.
The regions interested are Jakarta, Bekasi, West Java and Palembang in South Sumatra.
"We are currently in discussion with those regions' administrations, but we haven't reached any agreements so far," said Soeyoto, director of PT Navigat Organic Energy Indonesia.
Unfortunately, their plan to build the waste management plants in the regions faced many obstacles, he said.
"One of the obstacles is regional regulation," he said.
He said some regional regulations consider waste as the region's asset.
Consequently, the management of waste, including the appointment of a private company to handle it, needs to be decided and conducted through a long legal and bureaucratic process.
"We did not encounter such problems in Bali. The local administration selected the best waste management company and the most appropriate technology for the region," he said.
PT Navigat is now in the process of constructing the waste plant in Suwung, Denpasar, on a 10-hectare plot of land provided by the provincial administration.
The plant, Soeyoto said, would be able to process 800 tons of garbage per day and produce 2 MW of electricity. The operational capacity will be reached by October this year.
The capacity will be increased to reach 9.6 MW in 2010.
The waste will go through a multi-phase process; from gasification to anaerobic digestion.
The wet organic waste is separated from dry waste. The wet waste is crushed, dried and later transformed into compost. The compost undergoes a process called anaerobic digestion to produce gas. The dry organic waste goes through pyrolyzes and the gasification processes.
Gasification is the thermal process of converting biomass into combustible gases. This process will produce synthetic gas, which can be converted into electricity.
Soeyoto said his company only needed commitment from the local authority to provide land to build the plant and a continuous supply of garbage.
"We need a minimum of 500 tons of garbage per day," he said.
He said the technology would produce zero waste and assured regional administrations they would not have to deal with excess waste.
