Circular economy for packaging for Indonesia: Driving Change in Waste Management, Collection and Recycling
Nerida Kelton FAIP
Executive Director, AIP and Vice President Sustainability & Save Food, World Packaging Organisation
Attending the inaugural Indonesian Packaging Forum, that was held alongside of ProPak Indonesia, provided a deeper appreciation as to why incremental steps are so important for a country so diverse. These small steps driven by champions of change can create a ripple effect across a nation. ?
As an archipelagic state with 14,752 islands registered by the UN and a current population of 283,500 million people; with an average annual growth of approximately 2.73 million people per year; Indonesia is faced with significant challenges when it comes to meeting the Sustainable Development Goals.
According to UNEP, Indonesia produces 3.2 million tonnes of unmanaged plastic waste a year.
According to World Bank, Indonesia generates more than 7.8 million tonnes of waste annually with an estimated 60% uncollected, disposed of in open dumping sites and in improperly managed landfills and much of the waste inevitably ends up in the waterways. Two thirds of the debris comes from Java and Sumatra.
Despite these challenges the Indonesian Government has started taking steps to establish systemic change to see tangible outcomes for the country.
Waste Reduction Roadmap
Indonesia adopted a Presidential Decree to address these growing concerns and in 2019 Indonesia’s Ministry of Environment and Forestry (MOEF) introduced Regulation No.75 called the Producers Waste Reduction Roadmap towards 2029.
The roadmap sets practical actions to accelerate the reduction of plastic pollution and establishes regulations and programs for solid waste management, waste collection, recycling, reprocessing and the wider industry.
The objective of the roadmap is to assist brand owners, manufacturers, importers, retailers, and the food and beverage service industry, to reduce the waste generated from packaging and all substrates.
Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR)
This roadmap has also set the foundation for implementing Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) in Indonesia including strategies that encourage sustainable packaging design and waste reduction practices.
Current EPR policy implementation for FMCGs, Retailers, and Food Service businesses sees yearly submissions of Mandatory Reporting on R1, R2 and R3 are undertaken.
Solid Waste Management
Solid waste management continues to be a huge challenge in Indonesia due to improper open dumping or burning. Often the dumping and burning is a necessity due to the lack of available infrastructure such as access to basic waste collection services. The largest stream of municipal solid waste flows from house households (39.8%) (SIPSN, 2020) and with the current rate of urbanisation, more than 73% of Indonesians will live in cities by 2030 (UNDP, 2017).
In early 2024 the Malang Regency announced the Bersih Indonesia: Eliminasi Sampah Plastik (Bersih Indonesia) program where 2.6 million residents will have access to new or improved waste management services. This program aims to pioneer a self-sustaining and commercially viable system that can be further scaled and replicated across Indonesia. https://endplasticwaste.org/en/our-work/plastic-waste-free-communities/bersih-indonesia
Landfill, Open Dumping & Burning
The Solid Waste Management Act (No. 18/2008) was established to bring about the improvement of solid waste management in Indonesia, including the cessation of all open dump waste disposal by 2013. The ambitious target was not achieved.
A recent report from World Risk Poll identified that open burning is the third most common method of waste disposal across the world, with 48% of households in Indonesia burning their waste, even though the law prohibits it.
The MOEF Ministry are encouraging landfill mining as they announced that there are to be no more landfills constructed from 2030. The ministry is also working to replace open dumping landfill systems with sanitary and controlled landfill systems.
Waste Cows eating from landfill
Another concerning area that was discussed during the two days were the conditions of the landfill and dumping sites and how people and animals live there alongside all of the toxic waste. Waste Cows are animals that are intentionally left by farmers to feed off the waste and then they are then used in food for human consumption. Thousands of waste cows are left in landfill sites across Indonesia every day by farmers and create alarming concern for human health and safety. The industry players discussed the serious concerns for humans consuming food that is created from waste cows and are hoping that this will be regulated and banned in the future. ???
Champions for Change
During the two-day Indonesia Packaging Forum it was encouraging to hear from numerous organisations leading the change and driving action and outcomes for Indonesia including Indonesia Packaging Recovery Organisation (IPRO), WRI Indonesia, the National Plastic Action Partnership (NPAP), Jangjo and Rebricks. These companies are working to drive change and to provide collective impact across the country.?
Indonesia’s National Plastic Action Partnership (NPAP)
The Indonesia National Plastic Action Partnership (NPAP) is a collaboration between Global Plastic Action Partnership (GPAP) and the Government of Indonesia, with WRI Indonesia working as the secretariat for the program.
NPAP is a multi-stakeholder collaboration that has an ambitious target of reducing Indonesia’s marine plastic debris by 70% by 2025 and for the country to become plastic pollution-free by 2040.
The NPAP program considers Redesigning Packaging to increase recycling rates, establishing a National Plastic Data Storage that maps plastic waste initiatives and commitments from NPAP members, supporting with the Global Plastic Treaty to raise awareness of the International Legally Binding Instrument (ILBI) on Plastic Pollution and to encourage more brands to utilise Reuse and Refill systems.
NPAP have been working on raising awareness in Indonesia of the International Legally Binding Instrument (ILBI) on Plastic Pollution that was established in 2022 by the United Nations environmental Assembly (UNEA). The UNEA Resolution 5/14 necessitates developing more legal mechanisms across the globe to reduce plastics pollution including within the marine environment. This includes obliging each party to establish a regulated mandatory Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme, inclusion of eco-modulation that will incentivise plastic reduction, reuse or packaging and materials, increased recyclability, promote higher quality recycling and improve recycling rates.
NPAP believed that there is a significant gap for implementing the take-up of the voluntary EPR programs in Indonesia. As of 2024 there are only 42 producers who have submitted their Waste Reduction Roadmap plan, with only 18 having started the piloting projects. NPAP added that the mandate for producers to formulate roadmaps for their waste reduction is regarded as voluntary as the Government Regulation 81/2012 uses the term ‘Producers are obliged to’ as the basis of the MoEF Regulation P.75/2019.
WRI Indonesia has been working on a number of projects in preparation to align with ILBI including a study on Just Transition for ILBI Implementation on National and Subnational Level and a Plastic Accounting project to ensure transparency of plastic leakage along its lifecycle.?
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Indonesia Packaging Recovery Organisation (IPRO)?
Indonesia Packaging Recovery Organisation (IPRO) is an independent organisation that is striving to increase the collection and recycling of post-consumer packaging following international best practice to create a circular economy for packaging for Indonesia. ?
IPRO collaborates with government agencies and the industry alike to align technical insights into the Waste Reduction Roadmap that will enhance post-consumer collection of packaging for recycling.
Collection programs: By subsidising transportation costs and investing in better processing technologies, IPRO has improved waste collection volumes and efficiencies in parts of Indonesia such as West Java, East Java and Bali. This initiative not only boosts profitability for waste collectors but also reduces environmental impacts by ensuring more packaging waste is recycled rather than ending up in landfill. There is also a need to formalise the informal works and waste collectors within the country.
IPRO are also working on eco-modulation initiatives to apply principles that suit the voluntary EPR efforts through the collection on PET, HDPE, PP, PE, UBC and MLP. (UBC refers to used beverage cartons and MLP to multiple layer plastics.) This approach initiates the awareness needed to encourage more brands to design products with better recyclability.
Some of the challenges that IPRO discussed were around regulatory complexity, recycling market issues, collection & sorting inefficiencies, very low awareness of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) and capacity & technology gaps.
Zero waste to landfill Jangjo
The innovative company Jangjo was borne out of frustration watching approximately 8000 tonnes of waste being sent to TPA Bantar Gebang in Jakarta every day. Jangjo was created to improve the social and environmental impacts in the region.
Jangjo has a mission of sending zero waste to landfill and has established multiple localised waste processing facilities to reduce the burden on central landfills and improve waste management efficiencies. They want to elevate and strengthen the informal recycling and waste management workforce to ensure that pickers and collectors receive fair wages and work in safe, dignified conditions.
Jangjo are committed to create a new future for waste management that sees waste transformed into valuable resources, to maximise recycling and repurposing in Indonesia. Jangjo technology and systems transform waste into products such as Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF), Solid Recovered Fuel (SRF), and other useful materials.
JOWI System
The Jangjo Zero Waste Integrated (JOWI) System is an innovative approach to waste management, designed to transform waste into valuable products, significantly reducing landfill waste, minimising environmental impacts, and promoting sustainability through technology. ?This system saves up to 70% of land usage. JOWI is designed to fit waste processing areas, especially in urban locations with limited space. The compact system can process 200 tonnes of waste per day using only 3,000 m2 of land, resulting in operational and cost efficiency.
Rebricks: Transforming low value materials one brick at a time
Another Champion of Change is an innovative small business called Rebricks.
The speaker from Rebricks indicated that there is no economic incentive for collecting sachets, few companies recycle sachets and the official waste management in Jakarta doesn’t buy or sell sachet waste.
Non-valuable plastic waste is seen as plastic that is rejected by waste pickers, waste banks and waste collectors because it has no value and is difficult to be recycled.
In 2023 the Sungai Watch waste audit identified that 60% of waste found in the river trapping in Bali and Banyuwangi were sachets and 45% of the plastic found in beaches in Bali is soft plastics.
The outcome is that sachets are usually burnt, thrown into landfill and end up in the environment and the waterways. Rebricks transforms the rejected plastics with limited value and keeps the materials out of landfill, the waterways or burnt.
Rebricks takes the contaminated sachets, plastics bags, flexible packaging and soft plastics and creates recycled building materials producing new waste-free pavers, hollow blocks, rooves and tiles out of the rejected waste.
Since inception Rebricks have created partnerships and collaborations with so many stakeholders from government to retailers to brands to local communities. The team have taken bold steps and are achieving great results in a very short period of time, and this is commendable.
McDonalds have partnered with Rebricks to turn the store carparks and walkways into recycled pavers and Habitat for Humanity worked with Rebricks to launch Climate Smart Housing. Since the Climate Smart Housing project started 55 houses have been built utilising 15 tonnes of non-valuable waste. 1 house equates to 270 kg of non-valuable plastic waste. Rebricks are also working on a green subsidised housing project, a project to recycle bento boxes from across 45 HokBen stores and local communities are joining Rebricks to collect the rejected waste and earn an income.
Rebricks also trains and educates the local communities about the process and encourages everyone to get involved; creating the ripple effect needed for multiplier change.? They have trained 9 communities in 7 cities so far. Imagine what they could do if the business was supported by even more government agencies and NGO’s across Indonesia. Rebricks is certainly a business to watch.
After listening to 26 speakers across 2 days not only did I gain a deeper perspective of the true landscape in Indonesia but I also realised that the work being undertaken in the country is led by passionate people who are striving to make a difference. If all the stakeholders in the Indonesian value chain collaborated regularly the collective impact could be remarkable. I look forward to seeing the programs and initiatives take a life of their own and create the ripple effect for change we need across the globe. ????
According to one of the presenters ‘plastics is floating in the ocean for all to see because the industry doesn’t put any value on collecting and recycling the material. By using recycled materials and incorporating recycled content in packaging we can put a value on it.’
Nerida Kelton FAIP
Executive Director – AIP
Vice President Sustainability & Save Food - WPO
*Please note that all of the statistics cited in my wrap up have come from the speakers presentations at the Indonesian Packaging Forum.
Awardee of LPDP Scholarship PK-216 || Master of Food and Packaging Innovation at The University of Melbourne, Former Assistant Manager of Media Analyst at Binokular Media Utama, owner of Kookis Jogja
2 周Plastic waste is indeed a serious issue in my country, Indonesia. Thank you for writing this report, Nerida!
Chief Operating Officer at Jangjo Indonesia
2 周Thank you, Nerida, for acknowledging what we’re working toward. Our impact might still be small, but we’re committed to pushing forward and making real improvements. Your support means a lot as we continue to strive for change.
Chief Solutions Engineer | Food Processing & Packaging Expert | AI, Machine Vision & Lean Manufacturing
2 周Very insighful. I had no idea “waste cows” were a thing. Let’s hope these stategies make some change.