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Indonesia needs $477b investment for near-zero plastic pollution goal
Tackling the archipelago’s plastic problem will require huge funds but also create millions of jobs, experts say. Meanwhile, medical supplies have caused a new type of waste going to the ocean.
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Workers remove garbage from the Jakarta Bay on March 17, 2018. Residents living on a string of coral-fringed islands to the north of Jakarta’s coast are battling a tidal wave of trash, with more than 40 tons of rubbish picked up daily over the past week. (AFP/Dasril Rozandi)
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ndonesia needs investment of US$477 billion to reach its goal of near-zero plastic pollution by 2040, according to the Indonesia National Plastic Action Partnership (Indonesia NPAP).
The NPAP was unveiled by Coordinating Maritime Affairs and Investment Minister Luhut Pandjaitan in April last year as part of a global partnership to fast-track the circular economy.
Rofi Alhanif, an official at the environment and forestry management department of Luhut’s ministerial office, said the investment could increase the number of plastic recyclers and lift their overall annual capacity by 2.8 million tons.
“Implementing a circular economy on waste management will create a significant opportunity for green jobs,” he said during an online discussion hosted by the Indonesia Circular Economy Forum on Thursday.
Rofi added that such investment would create 120,000 jobs in the formal sector and 3.3 million in the informal sector.
Informal workers are the backbone of Indonesia’s waste management system. The Environment and Forestry Ministry noted that scavengers collected some 354,900 tons of plastic waste per year, while waste banks and government-owned facilities collected just 69,900 tons per year.
Private companies have put in efforts to formalize the informal workers so as to ensure their work safety and health insurance coverage.
