RI dumps toxic waste overload

Adianto P. Simamora, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

About two million tons of hazardous waste and substances are left untreated across the archipelago each year, damaging the environment and impacting on communities, the government said here Friday.

"We predict some 25 percent, of the seven million tons of hazardous waste that Indonesia produces each year, remains untreated," said Ilham Malik, deputy assistant for administration of hazardous waste control at the State Ministry for the Environment.

Many companies complained over the low capacity of the existing waste treatment plant, and dump their hazardous waste illegally without treatment, he said.

Indonesia currently has only one facility for the treatment of hazardous waste, PT Prasadha Pamunah Limbah Industri (PT PPLi), in Bogor, West Java.

"The company can manage only 100,000 tons of hazardous waste per year. So, we still need more facilities, mainly in Sumatra, Java and Kalimantan," he said.

The PPLi deals with almost every type of liquid and solid waste from across the country.

The company, however, does not treat radioactive waste, infectious waste, explosives, pressurized gas containers, certain reactive wastes, oils above 500 ppm or ammonium salts.

The government has only a 5 percent stake in PT PPLi and plans to sell it.

Ilham said while Indonesia produces huge amounts of hazardous waste, few investors were interested in waste treatment projects.

"We have consequently worked to promote the concept of 3R -- recycle, reuse and recovery -- to treat hazardous waste over the past four years," said Rasio Ridho Sani, assistant deputy for management of hazardous waste at the ministry.

As of 2006, around 1.7 million tons of hazardous waste including copper slug, oil sludge and fly ash from coal-fired electricity plants had been reused, he said.

"Many cement producers are now seeking fly ash to be used as a raw material for cement. We want to change the public mindset on hazardous waste," Rasio said.

Indonesia has been considered to be vulnerable to illegal exports of hazardous waste thanks to its extensive coastal areas.

"We have about 2,000 entry points into the country that could be used for illegal trafficking of hazardous waste," Rasio said.

The government is currently drawing up regulations to authorize local administrations to manage hazardous waste in their respective areas.

"We are drafting four ministerial decrees on hazardous waste management decentralization," he said.

Rasio added that the government is tracing hazardous waste from dumped electronic devices to prevent them from harming the environment.

Toxic chemicals from dumped electronic devices -- such as lead, arsenic, mercury and zinc -- can seep into the land over time, or be released into the atmosphere, and damage the environment.

The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) estimates that the world produces up to 50 million tons of electronic waste each year, less than 10 percent of which is recycled.

Indonesia has joined the Basel Convention -- an international agreement developed to address the uncontrolled dumping of hazardous waste.

Related Article:

Batam to get toxic waste plant