O

ne hundred drop boxes made especially for the disposal of product packaging waste are ready to be placed in various public places in Jakarta.

Each box has two compartments: one for paper-based packaging, such as cartons and cardboard boxes, and the other for nonpaper packaging, such as plastic bottles, plastic sachets, plastic bags, cans and glass containers.

Behind the project is the Packaging and Recycling Alliance for Indonesia Sustainable Environment (PRAISE), a body specializing in handling packaging waste that was founded by six giant consumer goods companies, the products of which are largely consumed in the country — Coca Cola, Danone, Indofood, Tetra Pak, Nestle and Unilever.

Sinta Kaniawati, a PRAISE representative, said at a press conference in Kemang, South Jakarta, on Wednesday that the initiative was intervention by the industry to overcome waste problems, especially with food packaging waste.

The Environment and Forestry Ministry estimates that the average Indonesian produces 0.7 kilogram of waste every day. In 2017, 65.8 million tons of waste were produced. Furthermore, 0.48 to 1.29 million metric tons of the country’s waste ends up in the ocean each year.

The Jakarta Environment Agency has revealed that the city administration has succeeded in reducing only 5 percent of the 7,000 tons of garbage produced in the capital every day, an insignificant figure caused by low public awareness about waste management. Plastic makes up 14 percent of daily garbage production.

The majority of garbage is dumped at the Bantar Gebang landfill in Bekasi, West Java, which is expected to reach full capacity in 10 years because of the absence of waste treatment facilities in the city.

Sinta said the problem could be addressed by educating households on how to sort garbage. “Sorting is the key to adding value to packaging waste,” she said.

The drop boxes, she said, would help residents sort their trash and make sure that the accumulated packaging waste was recycled instead of ending up in landfills or polluting the environment.

In implementing the project, PRAISE is cooperating with Waste 4 Change, a social enterprise working in waste management.

Mohamad Bijaksana Junerosano, the founder of Waste 4 Change, said 15 drop boxes had been put in several co-working spaces and offices around Jakarta. He said potential points across the city were being surveyed in the aim of installing 100 boxes by the end of the year. He added that the organization was in talks about the matter with Transjakarta and supermarket chains. “We are eyeing busy locations that are frequented by at least 500 people per day,” he said.

Bijaksana said that to install each box, he had to coordinate with local waste banks in each location. “The local waste banks will pick up the trash once every three days or every week, depending on the fullness of the box,” he said. “Afterward, the waste banks will sort the packaging trash into smaller piles. Then they will send the trash to the recycling industry.”

Sano said an initial study showed that each box received 15 kilos of trash every month.

Ali Maulana Hakim, deputy head of Jakarta Environment Agency, appreciated the initiative and said that managing trash should start from the source of the trash.

“Initiatives like this hopefully can help us to reduce the amount of trash sent to landfills,” he said.

He added that there were about 1,000 waste banks in various locations in Jakarta. The waste banks will only succeed if people actively become involved in managing waste, he said.