'Otherwise, we could face a penalty of Rp 5 billion (US$512,455),' he said on Sunday.

Arief said that with a growing waste problem, it was time for the dump in West Tanjungjabung regency, Jambi, to adopt sanitary landfill technology that was based on the 3Rs (reduce, reuse, recycle).

The technology uses integrated waste management in which waste materials are recycled before their residues are fed to the waste crushing facility.

'Waste should be separated into different places for the different categories such as wet and dry waste. Sorted waste can have economic value because wet waste, for example, can be used as fertilizer or compost,' Arief said.

West Tanjungjabung is one of the regions yet to implement the sanitary landfill system.

Arief said the West Tanjungjabung administration was drawing up a budget to buy land for a new dump because the current facility was overwhelmed.

'Ideally, the new facility would be 15 hectares, comprising a 10-hectare dump and the remaining 5 hectares a buffer area,' he said. (fan/ebf)

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