Defara Dhanya, Jakarta – Greenpeace Indonesia responded to the request of President Prabowo Subianto to Coordinating Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono (AHY) to form a national task force for accelerating the management of waste.
Plastics Project Lead of Greenpeace Indonesia, Ibar Akbar, assessed that the approach which still focuses on technology and waste management downstream has not been able to resolve the garbage crisis. He emphasized that a large investment in technology requires high costs, while the budget for waste management at the regional or city level is still limited.
"Therefore, the focus should prioritize the budget for waste management at the district/city level," said Ibar when contacted by Tempo on Wednesday, March 19, 2025. In addition, Ibar stated that the approach is sorting at the source, supported by infrastructure that focuses on sorting according to the mandate of Law No. 18/2008.
"Looking at the reports about this Task Force, it still focuses on waste-to-energy technology, which will certainly have a negative impact on the environment, such as producing dioxins during the process of turning waste into electricity," he continued.
Furthermore, he emphasized that the task force formed must prioritize policies and infrastructure based on the waste management hierarchy, with a primary focus on reducing single-use plastic production.
"Reduction at the source must be done, focusing on reducing single-use plastic production rather than downstream solutions that will be far from solving the problem," he said.
According to Ibar, waste separation at the source needs to be a priority supported by adequate infrastructure, as well as an increase in the budget for waste management at the district or city level. "As long as the approach still focuses downstream on waste-to-energy technology, it does not solve the problem at the source," he said.
Previously, AHY mentioned that the task force is tasked with creating comprehensive policies to deal with the waste problem in Indonesia.
"President Prabowo Subianto has instructed me to form a task force related to infrastructure and all elements of waste processing and handling nationally," he said at the Presidential Palace Complex, Central Jakarta, on Wednesday, March 12, 2025.
AHY mentioned that the task force will work to address a number of waste problems with technological support. One of the technological supports is to destroy the mounting waste at a number of Integrated Waste Processing Sites (TPST).
– Hendrik Yaputra contributed to this article.