Awaiting Positive Impacts

KOMPAS/P RADITYA MAHENDRA YASA

Various types of plastic waste are separated according to type and color in Kalirejo village, Ungaran Timur district, Semarang regency, Central Java, on Tuesday, April 23, 2019. The workers sell the plastic to a plastic processing factory for Rp 5,500 to Rp 14,000 per kilogram based on the type.

The 14^th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Basel Convention (BC COP-14) in Geneva, Switzerland, on April 29 – May 10, 2019, was lauded by environmental activists as the start of a new era in the war against plastic waste. The plastic waste trade is now regulated by the international agreement, which will go into full effect on Jan. 1, 2021.

For Indonesia, the convention results were nothing new. National regulations banned plastic waste imports  11 years ago.

However, through the convention, the plastic waste trade now directly involves government authorities of exporting and importing countries. The exporting government authority is required to provide a notice of plastic waste delivery to the importing government authority. This means that plastic waste exporters need to be responsible for the waste they export.

The notice aims to inform destination countries of the contents of the delivered waste. Destination countries may also reject the delivery and return the commodity if they do not want to receive plastic waste.

Despite regulations in Indonesia banning plastic waste import, plastic “scrap” import is still allowed. Scrap is chopped plastic material ready for recycling with minimal preparation and residual materials. This type of plastic waste, considered clean plastic, is regulated in Annex IX of the Basel Convention. No notice is necessary for plastic scrap export.

Another requirement is that the waste materials must be processed by importing industries and cannot be traded. These types of recyclable materials, including PP, HDPE and PE, can be easily found in plastic bottles and are scattered in rivers, beaches and other locations.

AGUS HARYONO PRIVATE DOCUMENT

Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) deputy chairman of technical sciences Agus Haryono (seated, right) with chairman of the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT) Hammam Riza (standing, center) and the Environment and Forestry Ministry’s Garbage, Waste and Dangerous and Poisonous Substance (B3) Director General Rosa Vivien Ratnawati pose for a photograph on the sidelines of the Conference of Parties in connection with the Basel Convention, the Rotterdam Convention, and the Stockholm Convention. The conference took place from April 29 to May 10, 2019, in Geneva, Switzerland.

Then, why does Indonesia still import plastic waste? Industry Ministry data shows that the national plastic industry needs 5.6 million tons of raw material per year. Some 2.3 million tons is fulfilled by virgin plastic, another 1.67 million tons is from imported virgin plastic and 1.1 million tons is from domestic recyclable materials.

This means that the national plastic industry still lacks 600,000 tons of materials. For a time, this has been partially fulfilled by 110,000 tons of imported plastic scrap. The import mechanism is regulated by Trade Ministerial Regulation No. 31/2016 on Non-Toxic Waste Import.

However, from July 2018 to February 2019, the Environment and Forestry Ministry temporarily ceased its issuance of import recommendations, due to its findings that the imported plastic scrap was mixed with other residual waste.

Between 2011 and 2012, hundreds of containers of waste were imported as metal scrap when they were actually whole metals with various pollutants, including oil, soil, electronic waste and chemical substance packages (Kompas, February 11, 2012). The useless waste added to Indonesia’s environmental burden when the country was already overwhelmed with its own waste problem.

AFP/MOHD RASFAN

A member of the media takes pictures of containers filled with plastic waste before they are shipped back to their country of origin in Port Klang, west of Kuala Lumpur, on May 28, 2019.

The Environment and Forestry Ministry has asked that Trade Ministerial Regulation No. 31/2016 be revised due to the presence of the phrase “and others” in the HS Code which loosens the scrap plastic categorization and identification. The revision will also tighten used paper imports, which sometimes still include plastic waste.

Ecoton Foundation’s investigation in East Java found that plastic waste might pollute 30-40 percent of recycled paper imports. This “imported” waste is sold or given to the people. Some of it pollutes rivers and empty land by the River Brantas.

China’s decision

It is believed that this flood in imported waste is linked to China’s decision to stop importing plastic waste. China had been the world’s largest plastic waste importer. Since 1992, China has imported around 45 percent of the world’s total plastic waste. The National Sword Policy has sent major countries and plastic waste producers scurrying for potential plastic waste importers.

The easiest options are Southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines. Currently, only Indonesia still opens its plastic waste import channel in the form of clean plastic scrap.

KOMPAS/FERGANATA INDRA RIATMOKO

Scavengers collect plastic waste at the Piyungan Integrated Waste Disposal Site in Bantul, Yogyakarta, on Tuesday, May 7, 2019. The scavengers help with the sorting of tons of garbage dumped at the site every day. The plastic waste is sold to collectors to be processed into raw materials.

A scientific report titled “The Chinese import ban and its impact on global plastic waste trade” in the Science Advance journal on June 20, 2018, exposed allegations of new destinations for plastic waste that had originally be channeled to China. Researchers Amy L Brooks, Shunli Wang and Jenna R Jambeck of the University of Georgia in the US used world trade data and found that advanced countries had exported plastic waste (70 percent in 2016) to low-income countries in East Asia and the Pacific for years.

The research alleged that around 111 million tons of plastic waste would be undeliverable by 2030, due to China’s new policy. Around 89 percent of the waste will be PP, PE and PET, sourced from plastic water bottles.

The Zero Waste Indonesia Alliance has said that Indonesia must be ready as a global waste dump destination. In July 2018, Malaysia revoked the import licenses of 114 companies and targeted a full import ban in 2021.

Reuters.com reported that Malaysia is preparing to return 60 containers of 3,000 tons of waste to Australia, the US, Japan, France, Canada, Australia and the UK. The Philippines returned 69 containers of waste to Canada. However, Canada rejected this as the export occurred in 2013-2014 and was a business-to-business deal without government involvement.

KOMPAS/IRMA TAMBUNAN

Workers at the Dream Garbage Bank separate plastic waste to be processed into paving blocks for sidewalks and park footpaths in Wijayapura village, South Jambi district, Jambi, on Tuesday, April 23, 2019.

Here lies the important role of the Basel Convention in involving government authorities in the export and import of waste and waste materials.

The Basel Convention is hoped to be new ammunition for Indonesia to ratify it.

The Basel Convention, a result of the Norway Convention, serves only to strengthen national regulations. Strengthening field officers, including customs officers and surveyors to detect incoming plastic waste, is also important.

However, an aggressive improvement of domestic waste management and collection, apart from encouraging behavioral change, is also important to reduce waste. If waste is sorted early on, during transport and collection, valuable plastic waste can be used as raw materials for the recycle industry. This way, imports can be reduced.

The positive impact is surely improvement for the environment, civilization and behaviors of waste management. The trade balance will also improve. For advanced countries that look pristine as they transport their waste to developing countries, the Basel Convention will push them to be responsible in processing their waste domestically.