The city administration's call to the private sector to participate in its waste treatment program will remain just that if no specific regulation on incentives and disincentives is rolled out, an official says.
Jakarta Environmental Management Board (BPLHD) enforcement head Ridwan Panjaitan said Thursday that although the country already had a 2008 law on waste processing, his agency could only rely on a persuasive approach to urge businesses and industry to start developing their own waste-treatment facilities.
"All we're doing now is educating as many institutions as possible about the law," he said.
Under the law, passed by the House of Representatives in May last year, operators of housing complexes, public facilities and commercial or industrial areas must provide a garbage-separation facility within a year of the law being passed.
It also stipulated local administrations must close all landfills and provide more reliable waste-processing facilities within five years.
Ridwan said the city administration, however, could not easily implement the law because it needed an implementing regulation to elaborate on at least 11 issues, including procedures on waste treatment and processing, conditions and terms for obtaining permits for waste-treatment facilities, the role of the community, and the implementation of disciplinary measures.
Indonesian Solid Waste Association chairwoman Sri Bebassari said she could understand the administration's position, adding it was not easy to form a solid legal foundation on the issue of waste management.
"Japan, for instance, needed more than 100 years to establish an integrated and powerful regulation *on waste management* like they are implementing today," she said.
However, Sri urged the Jakarta administration to encourage local communities to independently manage their own garbage.
"The administration, for instance, can help local residents start creative businesses using items salvaged from their domestic garbage," she said.
Jakarta produces 6,000 cubic meters of waste a day, or about the size of a six-story building, a third of which is plastic and paper waste, according to data from the Jakarta Sanitation Agency.
The capital's trash is carted out to the 108-hectare Bantar Gebang landfill in Bekasi.
To reduce the garbage load at the landfill, the administration is currently developing a waste-processing plant in Ciangir, Tangerang, in cooperation with the Tangerang administration.
Once the Ciangir site is ready, waste from Jakarta will be split, with three-quarters of it going to Bantar Gebang and the rest to Ciangir.
Earlier this year, the Jakarta administration renewed its contract with Bekasi administration to keep using the Bantar Gebang landfill for another 20 years.
