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Jakarta Post

Indonesia returns trash to exporters

The Environment and Forestry Ministry has returned five containers of trash to the United States after finding the containers, which were only supposed to carry clean paper scraps, contained diapers, plastic scraps, wood, fabrics and shoes in significant amounts

Ardila Syakriah, Kharishar Kahfi and Fadli (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta/Batam
Mon, June 17, 2019

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Indonesia returns trash to exporters

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span>The Environment and Forestry Ministry has returned five containers of trash to the United States after finding the containers, which were only supposed to carry clean paper scraps, contained diapers, plastic scraps, wood, fabrics and shoes in significant amounts.

Trash, Waste and Hazardous Waste Management Directorate General secretary Sayid Muhadhar told The Jakarta Post that the government would return five containers to the US from Tanjung Perak Port [in Surabaya, East Java].

“Although the containers were originally from Canada, the country of departure was the US,” he said Thursday.

“The five containers are on the Zim Dalian vessel and are ready to be transported back to the US,” the Environment and Forestry Ministry said in a statement on Friday.

The Trade Ministry had granted a permit for clean paper scraps to be imported in the five containers, which belong to PT Adiprima Suraprinta. However, the Environment and Forestry Ministry, in coordination with the customs and excise office at Tanjung Perak Port, discovered the “impurity” of the contents and ordered that the containers be re-exported to the US.

“This proves that the government is committed to protecting Indonesia from unwanted garbage from other countries,” the statement said.

Batam Customs and Excise Office and Environment and Forestry Ministry officials also oversaw the unloading of 65 containers that contained plastic trash from North America and Europe at Batu Ampar Port in Batam, Riau Islands.

They suspected that the contents included toxic waste and took samples to be examined. The containers were later sealed.

The plastic scraps were imported by four companies that had been given permits to import waste to supply Indonesia’s plastic recycling industry.

“The documents were all complete, but we found contents that did not match the criteria in the permit, so we will do a lab check,” Batam Customs and Excise Office head Susila Brata told the Post.

Activists have called on the government to take a stronger stance against waste-exporting countries, suggesting that merely returning the trash was not enough to solve the problem.

The Environment and Forestry Ministry, however, argued that returning the waste was proof of the government’s commitment to protect Indonesia from unwanted garbage from other countries. Activists, however, beg to differ.

Ecological Observation and Wetlands Conservation director Prigi Arisandi questioned the ministry’s recent move, noting that the smuggling of waste had gone on for the past 10 years amid “weak and careless supervision” by the authorities.

The ministry only took serious measures after Malaysia and the Philippines decided in May to ship back tons of garbage to Canada and other countries.

“If they only re-export [the trash] but not take any follow-up measures, it is just a pretentious act to follow Malaysia and the Philippines,” he told the Post on Saturday.

Prigi said the Environment and Forestry Ministry, the Trade Ministry and the Indonesian Pulp and Paper Association should urge exporting countries to certify paper waste exporters so that they adopt a better sorting system before shipping waste.

He argued that could help suppress the amount of plastic found among imported paper scraps to below 2 percent, as opposed to the usual 10 to 35 percent.

He added that waste exporters should also take responsibility for the environmental restoration of regions that have long been dump sites for imported waste, such as Bekasi, Karawang and Bogor in West Java, as well as Malang, Gresik and Mojokerto in East Java.

Bangun village in Mojokerto regency, for example, received waste imported from Europe and the US, which was sent by a paper recycling company in neighboring Pasuruan regency.

“Paper scraps have to be included in the red-line category, meaning they should be inspected by the customs and excise office, rather than in the inspection-free green line category,” Prigi added, referring to the Indonesian Single Risk Management mechanism introduced in 2016 to ease the flow of goods and services.

The Indonesian Forum for the Environment’s head campaigner for energy and urban issues, Dwi Sawung, said exporting countries should be committed to sorting their waste, adding that Indonesia should do just the same to reduce paper and plastic waste imports.

He added that while re-exporting waste could be a step forward, transparency was needed to ensure that the waste arrived at the exporting countries instead of other developing countries, which have increasingly been receiving the short end of the stick since the Chinese government banned waste imports in 2018. “The importers should also be fined or have their permits revoked, including their surveyors. We are sceptical whether the surveyors have truly done their job.”

Amin, director of PT Royal Citra Bersama, one of the importers of the unloaded containers, said the imported scrap plastic had been inspected by an American surveyor. “The scrap plastic will be used as raw material to make palettes to be exported to China. We haven’t had any problem [with importing scrap plastic].”

If the authorities found toxic waste or content banned in the 2016 Trade Ministry regulation among the plastic trash, they would return the containers to the exporting countries, he added.

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