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nvironmental activists have urged the government to take harsh action against any companies or individuals who bring waste products to Indonesian soil.

They made the call following the recent confiscation of over 100 containers allegedly containing hazardous waste imported from England and the Netherlands.

The Indonesian Forum for the Environment’s (Walhi) mining and energy campaign manager Pius Ginting said the government should take legal action against the import of waste, regardless of whether it was dangerous or not, because it would damage the environment.

“We must reject waste imports for any reasons as it might double the country’s environmental damage. It is unfair to allow waste, which mostly contains minerals, to be imported to Indonesia after the country suffers environmental damage in producing [minerals] for the sake of export,” he told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.

Pius added that waste imports were a violation of the 2009 Law on Environment Protection that banned the importation of hazardous and toxic waste.

Separately, Indonesian Center for Environment Law (ICEL) researcher Dyah Paramita said that waste imports also violate the 2008 Law on Waste Management that forbids imports of waste, of any kind, to Indonesia.

She said, however, that a trade ministerial decree allowed certain kinds of waste to be imported to support industry.

“Actually, we should not call this substance ‘waste’ because it is usable and can be recycled.

“Leftover electronic products can be reused for industry. However, much of the electronic waste brought from developed countries still uses old technology, which might not be proper for reproduction due to the rapid development of technology,” she said.

Dyah emphasized that waste imports would damage the environment no matter what, and thus called the government to strictly ban the activity.

Recently, the customs office seized 113 containers of scrap metal, each weighing 28,200 kilograms, allegedly contaminated with hazardous and toxic waste, known as B3, at Tanjung Priok Port in North Jakarta.

Those containers, of which 89 from England and 24 from the Netherlands, came in five shipments between late December and January from the Port of Felixstowe, England, and the Port of Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

Environment Minister Balthazar Kambuaya said his office was still closely examining the waste to know the kinds of toxic it contained.

The minister said scrap metal was not banned from entering Indonesia.

“However, the material must be safe and clean. These [materials] look like garbage. Some of them are wet, some are dry and some even drip smelly liquids. These clearly violate the law,” Balthazar said.