A waste disposal site processing Bali's methane-gas-ridden landfills has been hailed as a solution for the rest of Indonesia.
Yayasan Gus started the Temesi Waste project in Gianyar, Bali, in 2004 to address the town's serious waste disposal problems.
The project, being managed by the Rotary Club of Bali, Ubud, has become a model of solid waste management that can be replicated throughout the country.
The 2,400-square-meter site originally processed four tons of waste a day but is now ready to expand to 50 tons per day, or about 17,500 tons per year. About 85 percent of the waste consists of organic matter that can be composted, and 5 percent of non-organic waste can be recovered and sold to recyclers.
Only about 10 percent of the remaining waste is unusable, and is dumped safely into the neighboring landfill after hazardous material has been removed.
Temesi uses the aerobic composting method, using blowers to air the compost. The oxygen stops methane gas being produced from the waste, as occurs in anaerobic, unaired composting sites.
The project is registered with the United Nations' Clean Development Mechanisms, which provides compensation for reducing greenhouse gas emissions that can then be sold in the growing carbon trading market.
Rotarian Swiss chemical engineer and Temesi project leader David Kuper said the plant only produced carbon dioxide, not methane, which is 21 times stronger.
"For this production we get 'carbon credits'. We will use the money we get to make two or three more replications of Temesi," Kuper said.
The site includes a new 3,000-square-meter covered area which houses waste sorting, composting, curing, storage and blowers.
The composting research station has 13-feet-high liquid flow boxes for compost, temperature and oxygen controls and an analysis lab.
"We are the first agency to offer a comprehensive waste solution in Indonesia," Kuper said.
"From the very beginning we said that we wanted to make a replicable model that was low tech, low cost and decentralized, because there are huge facilities that are processing thousands of tons which would never fly here," he said.
"For 90 percent of Indonesians who are not living in big cities, this is the perfect solution."
An existing 400-square-meter building, formerly used for processing waste, is now being transformed into the indoor section of a climate change and waste theme park, headed by Rotarian Charlotte Wvrmer, who also hails from Switzerland.
Photovoltaic panels, biogas energy and windmills will be used as alternative sources of energy for the theme park, which is scheduled to open in late April or early May this year. The park will focus on waste and climate change issues with stimulating hands-on activities about waste management for visitors.
People visiting the site will be led through the waste recycling facility, equipped with a research station and a bioreactor with a waste water garden. Visitors will be able to see how safe drinking water and alternative energy is produced.
The three R's -- reduce, reuse and recycle -- will be a main theme of the park. Binocular microscopes will be provided to observe composting up-close, see how recycled paper is produced, and to analyze water quality.
An outdoor pavilion made from bamboo and other natural materials will sell snacks, drinks and products made from recycled materials.
Along with the Rotary Club of Bali, Ubud, the Swiss and German Rotary clubs, the International Development and Research Center of Canada, the Swiss Government and USAid are all sponsoring the Temesi Waste Recovery facility. The site was also recently supported by the Bali Hotels Association.
Two people who have been fundamental to the success of the Temesi Waste Site Project are the site's manager, I Wayan Cakra, and Ni Nyoman Ari Astiti who holds a degree in Environmental Health and has been running the composting research laboratory since January 2007.
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