Mimika adopts recycling measures to combat excessive waste

Markus Makur ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Timika   |  Fri, 06/12/2009 2:44 PM  |  The Archipelago

The Mimika regency administration is adopting recycling programs, including the production of organic fertilizer, to combat waste in the city.

After learning from Yogyakarta's provincial recycling program, the Mimika administration has launched a similar recycling program in their city.

The program is expected to have the Mimika Agriculture Agency use organic fertilizer yielded from the recycling, for seedlings in the area.

Nicholas Kuahaty, head of the Sanitation, Parks and Spatial Planning Agency said the Mimika administration, through his agency, would manage waste by preventing people from littering on the streets, especially in Timika, and would also help improve the economy.

He said the Mimika administration, representatives of which went to Yogyakarta in January for a comparative study, would immediately cooperate with the Yogyakarta provincial administration, which was experienced in managing waste, to learn as much as they could about the program.

"I've seen how waste is handled in Sukunan village in Yogyakarta, where all dry waste is processed into plastic bags, and wet waste is processed into organic fertilizer that can be used for plants," said Kuahaty.

"We'll have a pilot project of waste management at the neighborhood unit level in Koperapoka and Kwamki Baru subdistricts and Inauga village in Mimika Baru district."

He said the administration would have a new waste management system, including trucks that would pick up garbage from houses daily.

Kuahaty said the spatial planing subagency, under the auspices of the Mimika Public Works Agency, were not able to effectively handle waste management.

Residents currently dispose of their garbage in nine different sites on Timika's main streets, which is why the city is known as the "dirtiest" city in Papua, he said.

Kuahaty said these temporary garbage sites would be closed when the new waste management system came into effect.

"We want the image of Timika to transform from a filthy city to a beautiful city," Kuahaty said.

Under the new waste management, garbage collected from neighborhood units will be directly transported to final garbage sites.

"We already have five dump trucks for the purpose," he said.

The agency plans to apply sanitary landfill, not open dumping, to process waste at the final dump sites, as stipulated in the 2008 law on waste management, he explained.

Under the law, the agency may face fined if they continue to use open dumping until 2013, as it detrimental to the environment.

"We'll explore *a possible agreement* with a private company in Mimika that has experience in processing waste using sanitary landfill," Kuahaty said.

Copyright © 2008 The Jakarta Post - PT Bina Media Tenggara. All Rights Reserved.