Indonesia’s waste management sector going strong

Indonesia continues to see an increased trend in the country waste management capacity. To assist in pushing this momentum forward, EKONID will host a Digital Trade Mission on waste management in June.

On March 23, 2021, EUWELLE Environmental Technology GmbH, a subsidiary of China-based Welle Environmental Group, was given the official award to design, build and operate the 1,800 tons-per-day (tpd) Regional Waste Management and Final Processing Site (TPPAS) in Nambo, West Java. 

It was a momentous occasion for both the company and the West Java administration as it was the first Private-Public Partnership agreement to be successfully implemented in the waste management sector. EUWELLE, on its part, will employ their proprietary Maximum Yield Technology (MYT) to convert household wastes into Refuse-Derived Fuel (RDF), granule fertilizer and electricity.

Standing on an area of 55 hectares, the Lulut-Nambo TPPAS is planned to be one of the most modern waste management facilities in Indonesia. The project was left adrift for years due to uncertainty in the implementation. That is until current West Java Governor Ridwan Kamil reopened and inaugurated the construction of the facility in 2018. After a long tender process, Mr. Kamil said Euwelle was chosen out of three other candidates due to having a true and tested technology at the right price.

“West Java has decided that all of its waste must be converted to energy... so at minimum this should be done. We actually need three to four more large-scale projects such as this,” Mr. Kamil said during the announcement of Euwelle’s appointment, as quoted by Detik.

The above is just one example of how Indonesia is seeing an increased trend in its waste management capacity. According to data from the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (KLHK), in 2019, Indonesia is able to reduce, reuse, and recycle only 14.58% of its waste, while 34.60% are managed – as in dumped in landfills or incinerated – thereby bringing the national waste management to 49.18%. By 2020, this has increased to 16.23% in waste reduction and 34.60% in waste management for a total of 54.15%. By 2025, Indonesia wants at least 30% of all waste reduced, reused and recycled, and the remaining 70% managed.

This is supported by other examples set by the growth of waste management businesses and communities across the country. Companies like Waste4Change, Jakarta Recycle Centre, Beberes, Bulksource, Rekosistem and Rebest Indonesia are some of the more well-known ones that are active in the Greater Jakarta area, each having plans to cover more of the archipelago. 

Meanwhile, local communities are also contributing to the waste management effort by taking in waste to recycle them in their own unique ways. Magalarva and Kertabumi for example uses larvas to speed up the decomposition process, while Setali and Pable.id turns thrown away textiles into new products. West Java saw the highest increase in the provision of water and recycling services of around 15% in the third quarter of 2020 compared to the rest of the country, according to data from the Indonesian Statistics Agency.

The movement for better waste management has affected all aspect of life in Indonesia, from religious sermons to the creative arts. In late April, the National Coordination team of Ocean Waste Management (TKN PSL) and the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) initiated GRADASI, a mosque-based waste management movement. Under this campaign, plastic waste collected at mosques will be sold to the waste bank, and the money would be used for religious activities at the mosque or to help the poor, orphans, and widows in the surrounding areas. Six grand mosques in some regions are to be the model for this campaign. 

Also in late April, the KLHK funded and released a series of short films that aims to educate the masses on how to better manage waste. The films, starring Indonesian actress Siti “Ozzie” Fauziah, are distributed freely online. 

As recently reported by EKONID, the waste management sector bucked the economic downward trend among other business categories in Indonesia during the COVID-19 pandemic. By the end of 2020, the sector grew by 4.94% while other sectors contracted according to data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS). It is the third fastest growing main sectors in 2020, beaten only by the pharmaceutical and medical services sector and the telecommunication sector.

To keep this momentum going forward, EKONID is hosting a Digital Trade Mission with online presentation and virtual B2B meetings between Indonesian and German representatives. EKONID has partnered with BlackForest Solutions GmbH, German RETech Partnership e.V. (RETech) and the Nuremberg Chamber of Commerce & Industry to implement this mission, which is supported by the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi).