Firms held responsible for product life cycles

Companies operating in Indonesia will be held responsible for the life cycle of their products and its packaging.

After two years of deliberation, the plan outlined in a draft Government Regulation is intended to control waste which either cannot decompose or takes an excessive length of time to deteriorate. The draft regulation promotes “extended producer responsibility” (EPR), which requires producers to take back their waste products for recycling.

“The main EPR targets are food and beverage companies and producers of consumer goods. Many of them still make no effort to recollect the huge amount of waste they produce,” Ujang Solihin Sidik, acting head of the Environment Ministry’s waste management unit said on Saturday, adding that the EPR system was needed to deal with the increasing amount of plastic litter.

“Noodle companies produce over 11 billion pieces of plastic each year, most of which are dumped either into landfills or rivers,” he said.

Scientists say this plastic litter needs more than 100 years to decompose .

Some shopping centers have promoted eco-friendly bags in response to global green issues, and Indonesia observes National Waste Day every Feb. 21, where the main theme is focused on getting rid of plastic bags.

“Under EPR, companies are required to make “eco-products” from degradable materials, including packing,” Ujang said.

The first public discussion of the draft was expected to begin next month before it is submitted to the President for approval.

The draft submission may come late because the 2008 law requires that the government regulation should have been completed by the end of 2009.

The draft stipulates that producers should manage their packaging and/or products that do not decompose by natural processes. The draft government regulation instructs that company waste reduction efforts should follow the EPR mechanism, and also makes it mandatory for producers, companies, importers and distributors to use easily degradable raw materials and support recycling methods that do not pose threats to human health.

“We hope producers will set up waste collection stations in shopping centers to enable the community to return packaging litter,” Ujang said.

Data from the Central Statistic Agency shows Indonesia produced 51 million ton of waste in 2008, less than 60 percent of which was dumped in landfills. The remaining was burned in the open or dumped in rivers. Government statistics also report that plastics accounted for 42 percent of Indonesia’s waste products in 2007.

The Environment Ministry says that less than seven percent of the country’s waste is managed under the reuse, recycle and recovery (3R) concept. Making matters worse, less than 1 percent of organic waste in big cities is converted into compost.

The draft requires producers to put labels on products informing consumers if the products used recyclable materials. Under the draft the government will also promote incentives such as tax and import duty reductions for companies that make efforts to reduce waste.

As a disincentive the Environment Ministry promised it would publicly announce the names of companies that fail to abide by the regulation.

The government could implement the EPR concept without waiting for the government regulation, Indonesian Solid Waste Association chairwoman Sri Bebasari said.