Bali launched its garbage-based power plant to help supply electricity to state-owned electricity company PT PLN at Suwung garbage dump site on Jl. Bypass Ngurah Rai, about 10 kilometers from downtown Denpasar.
The Sarbagita integrated garbage processing installation project was delayed for four years because of reasons undisclosed.
The power plant project, which was launched early last month, is designed to have a 2-megawatt (MW) capacity this year, which will be raised to 9.6 MW by 2010.
"We hope all systems will start functioning early in November," said Budi Mulyanto, PT Navigat Organic Energi Indonesia (NOEI) project manager, on Thursday.
NOEI is a joint venture with General Electric from Britain. The company is managing the project.
In its implementation, PT NOEI applies integrated garbage processing techniques, including gasification, landfill and anaerobic digestion, he said.
Budi explained that initially the project would process garbage from 68 dump trucks each day, the equivalent of about 600 cubic meters of waste.
When the project is operating to full capacity, the plant is expected to process about 12,000 tons of garbage per day from Denpasar, Badung, Gianyar and Tabanan.
A landfill cell has been constructed and a number of trash pickers were seen Thursday, separating nonorganic garbage like plastics, paper and metal.
"We still need trash pickers to separate waste before being processed. We will employ those who used to work at the garbage dump," he said.
Budi further said most waste at Suwung dump had been piled in the open air, a system which was not efficient because it relied on limited garbage separation.
This system caused pollution in surrounding areas, he said.
The project is the first clean development mechanism program and is part of efforts to reduce the impacts of global warming in the developing country.
Through the mechanism, which was discussed at the United Nation Framework on Climate Change (UNFCC) in Nusa Dua last year, developing countries will receive financial incentives for their efforts to reduce gas emissions because of permit trading systems.
Methane gas from garbage is considered the most dangerous to the environment and that is why garbage processing is given priority in policies to reduce the effects of global warming.
Made Suarnatha, director of Wisnu Foundation, an environmental NGO, said he hoped the clean development mechanism program gave the community a sense of justice.
"Besides helping to reduce global warming, we have to struggle for a kind of climate justice for the sake of improving welfare within the local community," he said.
What is meant by climate justice is that the separation of household garbage is intensified.
"I will hand over a material recovery facility system to the residents to separate the garbage, so they resell parts of the waste. The residue will be transported to the dump site," he added.
