It seems that people believe recycling is the most plausible answer to the plastic problem, which is a headache for people all over the world. We usually assume that all the waste we toss into bins will be properly recycled into new and useful products.

But in reality, things are not as simple as we would like them to be. We know that existing systems and technologies have yet to work together to properly manage all waste. The global plastic waste crisis remains unresolved.

On the “bright” side, plastic waste recycling is a big business. The industry needs 913,000 tons of local plastic waste and 320,000 tons of imported plastic waste. In 2018, Indonesia consumed roughly 7.2 million tons of plastic, according to the Industry Ministry. That underscores how big the national demand for plastic production is.

But a report from Sustainable Waste Indonesia shows that the country only recycled less than 10 percent of its plastic waste, as reported by Mongabay.co.id earlier this year.

“Almost all types of plastic can be recycled,” Indonesian Plastic Recyclers (IPR) chairman Ahmad Nuzuluddin said. “But in Indonesia, the recycling industry has yet to receive the government support it deserves.”

Local plastic recyclers have neither advanced technology nor the adequate infrastructure needed to process and transform plastic waste into high-end products. Most of them can only extract low-quality materials from recycled content to produce household items, such as disposable plastic bags and plastic buckets.

“Our products are still at the lowest level in the industry,” Ahmad said. “China has used recycled materials for mobile phones and eyeglasses. But Indonesia is not there yet.”

Among the most pressing problems in the recycling industry is the production of clean, quality materials. A lot of plastic waste is left unmanaged because they are poorly sorted and contaminated with organic materials, like compost and food waste.

A key solution to the issue is waste sorting. This surely can be done through individual initiative and action by homeowners, but it gets tricky when we look at the entire waste system. As soon as household trash is collected, sorted plastic waste might get mixed with organic waste inside garbage trucks.

“Collection is still our biggest handicap,” Ahmad said. “When plastic waste gets mixed with organic materials, the smell might never go away.”

Such materials are harder and more expensive to process, and the recycling industry prefers to leave out the bad-quality materials, opting instead to buy foreign trash of higher quality.

The local recycling system, then, doesn’t get the most value out of its plastic waste. As a result, the complex problem of plastic pollution requires an even more complex solution.

The good news is that stronger movements to recycle and reduce plastic waste have been taking shape.

Big corporations are starting to pay attention to the plastic waste they produce, aiming to reduce the amount of virgin plastic they use in their packaging. Danone-Aqua, for instance, has pledged to produce half of its packaging for drinking water with 100 percent recycled bottles by 2025.

Customers, meanwhile, are encouraged to adopt a more sustainable lifestyle. The campaign on living with less waste is growing. Now, some religious leaders are calling on their followers to reduce plastic use in their daily lives.

In the meantime, where does all of the unmanaged plastic waste go? It is burned in backyards, abandoned in landfills and transported to rivers and oceans.

Popular

RI, Australia strengthen partnership on taxing crypto assets

Analysis: Indonesia denies normalization with Israel to enter OECD

Citroen to produce electric cars in Indonesia