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Batam suspends toxic waste shipping after discovering illegal imports
Authorities have found three containers of hazardous waste at a Jakarta port that were suspected to have originated from outside of Indonesia but had transited through Batam.
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An aerial view of Batu Ampar seaport, Batam, Riau Islands. (Courtesy of BPK FTZ Batam/-)
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t least 60 shipping containers carrying hazardous and toxic waste (B3) have been piling up at Batu Ampar port in Batam, Riau islands, for five months since it was discovered that an earlier shipment to Tanjung Priok Port in Jakarta, had contained waste from foreign countries.
All hazardous waste produced by industrial zones in Batam are supposed to be sent to a treatment plant operated by PT Prasadha Pamunah Limbah Industri (PPLI) in Cileungsi, Bogor, West Java, which is currently the only treatment facility for hazardous waste in the country.
The recent discovery of the illegal containers that were shipped together with the locally produced waste had prompted Batam Customs and Excise Office to suspend all waste shipments from the islands regency.
The head of the Batam Environment and Forestry Agency, Herman Rozie, said they decided to stop sending away the waste because authorities had found three containers of hazardous waste at the Jakarta port that were suspected to have originated from outside of Indonesia but had transited through Batam.
“After the discovery, we were worried that more waste from abroad would transit illegally through Batam and then be sent to Cileungsi to be eliminated. That’s why we were asked to fix our waste management system, one way by implementing electronic manifests,” Herman said.
By using an electronic manifest system called Festronik, Herman said they would know the volumes, origins and destinations of the B3 waste.
“We must be firm in managing the B3 waste and with Festronik everyone — the environment and forestry agency, customs and excise office and the companies producing the waste — can track the journey to the waste treatment plant,” he told The Jakarta Post on Friday.
