Investors scramble for garbage in Tangerang

Multa Fidrus, The Jakarta Post, Tangerang |  Fri, 11/07/2008 4:21 PM  

A number of business owners in Tangerang regency have begun to see garbage as a promising business opportunity for the future. 

A group of local entrepreneurs calling themselves Pejuang Kecil (Small fighters) and a civil society group Green Foundation are just two of the groups of opportunity seekers scrambling for stakes in the regency's garbage-processing business. 

The groups have been engaging in partnerships to process trash in an environmentally friendly way. 

"We're using an incinerating machine that has an efficient size. It can be placed on any 300-square-meter plot of land where it can process all the garbage from that district," Munandar, a member of the Green Foundation said Thursday. 

He said with the incinerators costing Rp 150 million each, the administration could save on regency expenditures for garbage handling at final dumping sites that costs billions of rupiah. 

He said if the incinerators were distributed to every district, there would also be no need to spend money transferring garbage piled up at temporary dump sites in the respective districts to the central landfill. 

"A laboratory test has proven that the incinerator doesn't pollute the environment," he said, adding that the foundation would organize a meeting with the relevant agencies under the regency administration to advance the plan.