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.
NGOs call on government to stop plastic waste imports
A Greenpeace report in 2018 showed that waste imports to Indonesia soared from 10,000 tons per month in late 2017 to 35,000 tons per month in late 2018.
Change Size
Officers examine the contents of a container from abroad and find unlicensed plastic waste in it. Sixty-five containers were confiscated at Batu Ampar Port in Batam for further examination in a joint operation conducted by the Customs and Excise Office, the Batam Environmental Agency and the Forestry and Environment Ministry. The containers were supposed to contain only clean plastic scraps, but all kinds of plastics were found in them. (JP/Fadli)
T
he government needs to strengthen its waste import policy and follow ASEAN countries in stopping the transfer of plastic waste to reduce the influx of imported waste into the country, activists have said.
The Indonesian Zero Waste Alliance, which consists of four environmental groups, namely BaliFokus, the Indonesian Center for Environmental Law (ICEL), Ecological Observations and Wetlands Conservation (Ecoton) and Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi), added that such enforcement would prevent the transfer of hazardous and toxic waste disguised by plastic waste.
"Indonesia needs to strengthen its policy to prevent the transfer of hazardous and toxic waste," Walhi activist Nur Hidayati said during a discussion at Walhi’s office in South Jakarta recently.
“[In 2015,] we were known globally as the second [highest contributor] of plastic waste into the ocean, we could not handle that problem and now we are receiving waste imports [from developed countries],” Nur said.
A Greenpeace report in 2018 showed that waste imports to Indonesia soared from 10,000 tons per month in late 2017 to 35,000 tons per month in late 2018. Among the top plastic waste exporters to the country are the United Kingdom, Germany, Australia and the United States.
She said the government must take responsibility to solve the problem by creating a comprehensive regulation because the current policy had a loophole that was utilized by exporters to send waste to Indonesia.
For instance, there was no clear definition of what kind of plastic waste could be imported in Trade Ministerial Regulation No. 31/2016 on waste imports, she said.
