It is believed that the vision and missions of the three presidential candidates do not touch the root of the waste management problem

MidLand, Jakarta – The Indonesian Zero Waste Alliance (AZWI), a combination of a number of organizations dealing with environmental issues, evaluated the couple’s vision and mission presidential and vice presidential candidates has not yet addressed the root of Indonesia’s waste management problem.

Based on the vision and mission conveyed by the candidate, waste management So far it has not become a key issue in the development of government policies, compared to other environmental issues such as energy, natural resource management and climate change.

Although there has been progress waste management in Indonesia through the enactment and implementation of numerous regulations, but this is still unable to address the root cause of the waste management problem.

Data from the National Waste Management Information System (SIPSN) for 2023 shows that the amount of waste managed is currently only 66.74%. The remaining 33.26% is not managed.

Sustainable Earth Conservation Yaksa (YPBB), one of the members of AZWI, stated that since the entry into force of Law No. 18 of 2008 on Waste Management, the issue of waste management must be seen as an environmental issue in which waste management must encourage the saving of natural resources, the reduction of carbon emissions and toxic pollution.

“Therefore, improving the national waste management system must start by making it a top priority for development,” said Sustainable Earth Conservation Executive Director Yaksa David Sutasurya, Friday, February 9, 2024.

According to David, reducing carbon emissions is also linked to efforts to reduce the production of food waste. However, food waste is currently not yet a priority for the government.

In fact, David said, food waste is a major contributing type of organic waste. Based on SIPSN data, food waste entering the food chain ranks first with a total of 43.3% in 2023.

Gita Pertiwi Surakarta Foundation director Titik Eka Sasanti said mitigation in the form of policies and programs is needed to reduce food losses and waste in the production, distribution and consumption chain.

“The cause of the landfill fire was a methane gas explosion triggered by a long drought and an open exhaust system. The source of methane gas in the landfill came mainly from the production of organic waste, one of which was food waste,” Titik said.

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Titik added that data from Bappenas (2021) shows that food waste generation in Indonesia averages 115-184 kg/capita/year, which contributes 7.29% to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. of Indonesia.

National director GreenpeaceIndonesia, said Leonard Simanjuntak, Indonesia should also stop the Waste to Energy (WtE) development policy. He said the policy was a form of false solution.

WtE, Leonard said, does nothing more than divert the waste problem into toxic pollution and increase carbon emissions. WtE also constitutes a disincentive
transformation towards a system that complies with the principles of sustainable development, i.e. separate collection and waste reduction.

“Transforming waste into electricity through the construction of PLTSa and also the use of RDF for co-firing in PLTU, which has become increasingly intensive in recent years, is a misleading approach. From the point of view of the energy transition, this option it is not significant to ending the dominance of coal,” Leonard said.

Meanwhile, in terms of air quality management, Leonard said, there is also the potential to increase negative environmental health impacts.

The head of the pollution and environmental damage control division of the Indonesian Center for Environmental Law (ICEL), Fajri Fadhillah, said that the cause of stagnation in improving waste management performance is poor waste management at all the levels of government.

Fajri said waste management requires coordination between institutions and ministries, as well as synergy of policies and regulations, including policies related to health and environmental monitoring.

“Significant improvements in waste management, especially in institutions and budgets that focus on efforts to reduce waste upstream or in production, as well as policies related to producer responsibility in reducing the production and use of plastic packaging, they must be a priority for presidential and vice presidential candidates, Fajri said.

IRSYAN HASYIM