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'Producers responsible' for recycling plastic waste
WASTE HEROES: Two trash pickers swim in the Utan Panjang stream to collect plastic waste from the dirty, foul-smelling water
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WASTE HEROES: Two trash pickers swim in the Utan Panjang stream to collect plastic waste from the dirty, foul-smelling water. (JP/Ricky Yudhistira)
Students have to walk along a one meter-wide path beside the confined beach of Sunda Strait to reach State Elementary School 3 in Marunda, North Jakarta.
In the water, there are not only fish swimming about, but also waste. A thick layer of plastic waste floats on the water -- from plastic shampoo and beverage bottles to empty noodle cups and snack wrappers.
Neither consumers nor producers are excited about cleaning up this kind of waste despite a recent law on waste management.
One of the articles in the new law states that producers must manage their own nondegradable packaging and/or products.
"There are only a few people who are concerned about the issue and work on waste management," Sri Bebasari, the Indonesia Solid Waste Association (INSWA) head, told The Jakarta Post recently.
"Unless something big happens, nobody pays attention to it."
Sri is urging the government to guide the operation of Article 15 by regulating on Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) and asking producers to set up waste management systems for the products they sell.
"It is for social fairness. If you produce garbage, you handle it. Do not ask others, like trash pickers, to take over your role.
"The process can start at the production stage, with companies using degradable materials, and continue to a system that collects and recycles the packaging," she said, using the Body Shop, where consumers return used packaging, as an example.
"Companies' environmental CSR (corporate social responsibility) activities now are only limited to separate and reuse. Some teach people how to make handicrafts from the waste, but this only solves a very small portion of the waste problem," she said.
"We are asking the private sector to get involved in the formulation of regulation to make it workable and not just a law that nobody cares about," she said.
She said, however, companies were not excited about the suggestion.
"We cannot do everything on our own," said Sinta Karniawati, Unilever Foundation general manager.
"We cannot collect waste from communal waste bins. It is hard. Even the government finds it hard to do, not to mention Unilever. We are in the consumer goods business, not the waste business.
"The trash is thrown out by people. We can clean the river, but it will be dirty again the next day. We cannot just concentrate on the waste because we also have other business activities to handle."
Currently the company is working on projects to increase awareness on how to separate waste, make handicrafts from plastic products and make compost from organic waste, Sinta said.
"Separating waste makes the job for trash pickers more efficient, and they can earn more. Our handicraft entrepreneurs buy the plastic packaging, which reduces waste," she said.
"If people stopped throwing rubbish into the water, there would be no waste there."
The foundation is relying on the expected multiplier effects of its community programs to achieve waste management objectives, rather than pumping in money, Sinta said.
"We cannot do something that it will jeopardize our main business. After all, the business funds these projects."
Waste management is also taking a back seat for another company, LG Electronics Indonesia, which is currently focussing its CSR on community development.
"We do not have much waste in our factory to clean up," said Woo Jung Wan, LG Electronics Indonesia finance manager.
"We have followed the government regulation about waste management. We sometimes offer trade-in programs where we purchase used LG products at a certain price."
The old electronic products are later dismantled based on the materials and sold to appropriate recycling companies, he said. The frequency of such programs is not scheduled, he added.
Sri said companies, especially multinational corporations, should play a bigger role in waste management, as is common practice in some countries.
"Tetrapak in Sweden already has their own recycling program. The one in Indonesia is still completing their study on collection method, but hopefully they will start soon," she said.
Around 70 to 80 percent of waste produced in Jakarta is inorganic, and the proportion is on the rise. The city produces some 6,000 tons of waste every day.
