TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Group warns of hazardous plastic waste imports
The Indonesian Zero Waste Alliance has urged the government to tighten its regulations on importing plastic waste following China’s recent move to restrict waste imports into that country
Change Size
T
span>The Indonesian Zero Waste Alliance has urged the government to tighten its regulations on importing plastic waste following China’s recent move to restrict waste imports into that country.
For decades from 1988 to 2016, China absorbed 45.1 percent of global waste. The alliance has warned that Indonesia could potentially accept the waste now rejected by China, if the government does not implement and enforce strict regulations against imported plastic waste.
Based on Statistics Indonesia (BPS) data, Indonesia imported 283,152 tons of plastic waste in 2018, up by 141 percent from the previous year. The Chinese ban on imports of 24 types of waste material came into effect in February 2018.
“There is an indication that Indonesia is importing waste no longer accepted by China. Do not let Indonesia become other countries’ trash bin,” Mochamad Adi Septiono from the NGO BaliFokus Foundation said on Thursday on behalf of the alliance.
He added that Indonesia only processed around 8 percent of its own waste annually. “Why don’t we use our own plastic waste first?”
A study led by Jenna Jambeck of the University of Georgia in 2015 named China and Indonesia as the first and second-largest plastic polluters in the world.
China produces around 8.8 million tons of waste annually, with up to 3.5 million tons of it ending up in the ocean. Meanwhile, Indonesia produces 3.2 million tons of plastic waste, with around 1.29 million tons going into the sea.
China took a radical move to massively scrap its plastic waste generation with the implementation of its National Sword policy.
Other ASEAN countries accepting plastic waste from abroad, including Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, are currently intensifying efforts to restrict the imports. Malaysia, for example, revoked plastic import permits of 114 companies last year, while, at the same time, tightening its import standards. The country aims to fully prohibit plastic waste imports by 2021.
Indonesia — according to Trade Ministerial Regulation No. 31/2016 on the import of nonhazardous and toxic waste — allows the import of plastic materials to support industrial operations. The material, however, must come from the leftovers from production activities, not consumer or household waste.
Among the permitted plastic materials are polythene used in the making of plastic bags, containers including bottles, polystyrene widely used in styrofoam cups, plates and bowls and polyvinyl chloride used in the construction of pipes.
Prigi Ariesandi from NGO Ecoton, who observed the import activities of 11 paper factories in East Java, found that household waste such as diapers, condoms and detergent packaging bags were smuggled in bags of imported paper. The useless plastic waste was then recklessly dumped into the environment or burned. “Such waste harms our water, earth and air,” Prigi said.
Law No. 3/2014 on waste management stipulates that the import of household waste is prohibited with a maximum punishment of nine years’ imprisonment or fine of Rp 3 billion (US$212,328).
Fajri Fadillah from the Indonesian Center for Environmental Law recommended that the government revise existing Trade Ministerial Regulation No. 31/2016 to include a requirement for companies to return any prohibited household materials to exporting countries. Among the biggest waste exporters in the world are Germany, Netherlands, the United States and the United Kingdom.
“The ministry has instructed companies to return any hazardous and toxic waste to exporting countries. It, however, has yet to impose a similar regulation on household waste,” Fajri said on Thursday.
