Playing Tactics to Handle Waste in Yogyakarta
The city of Yogyakarta is facing big challenges in waste management after the closure of the Piyungan landfill.
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Officers organize rubbish thrown away by residents at the Tamansari Temporary Disposal Site (TPS), Yogyakarta City, Saturday (4/5/2024).
Special Region Province Yogyakarta entered a new phase of waste management after the closure of the Piyungan Regional Final Processing Site (TPA) as of May 1 2024. Of the three affected areas, Yogyakarta City is the most vulnerable. Can the city government solve this problem?
The plan to close the landfill located in Sitimulyo Village, Piyungan District, Bantul Regency, has been proposed by the DIY Regional Government since the middle of last year. This is because the 10 hectare waste storage area at the landfill, which has been operating for 28 years, is already full.
Since September 2023, the TPA, which is the mainstay of the City of Yogyakarta, Sleman Regency, and Bantul Regency, has practically only operated in a limited area of 2.5 hectares of transition zone land. However, the transition land is now full and must be completely closed as of May 1, 2024.
For this reason, the DIY Regional Government has been pushing for decentralization of waste management since the middle of last year. This means that the three districts/cities that have been dependent on Piyungan TPA must handle their waste independently. The three of them also stated their readiness to decentralize waste management with their respective road maps.
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Rickshaw users pass in front of a pile of rubbish on Jalan Letjen Suprapto, Yogyakarta City, Saturday (4/5/2024).
However, the city of Yogyakarta faces a more complex challenge compared to its two siblings. The city's area is only 33 square kilometers, which is 1 percent of the area of DIY province. Meanwhile, Sleman has an area of 575 square kilometers and Bantul reaches 507 square kilometers, which is 15-17 times larger than the area of Yogyakarta.
The limited area creates problems in building waste processing facilities in the city of Yogyakarta. As the provincial capital and economic center, there is almost no empty land left in the city.
Also read: Piyungan TPA Closes Permanently, Three Regions in DIY Can No Longer Send Waste
The issue becomes even more complex because Yogyakarta City is an area with the highest population density in DIY, even one of the highest in Indonesia. Based on data from the Central Statistics Agency in 2023, the population of Yogyakarta City is 375,000 people, making its population density reach 11,400 people per square kilometer.
Under these conditions, the Yogyakarta City Government has divided waste processing into three integrated waste processing facilities (TPST). All three are developments from the existing TPS 3R (reduce, reuse, recycle). This is a solution to land constraints even though the area is limited.
Piyungan Rejection
Acting Mayor of Yogyakarta, Singgih Raharjo, on Thursday (2/5/2024) said that of the three, the Nitikan TPST, which has a processing capacity of 60-75 tons of waste per day, is the largest. The TPST is already operating to process waste into fuel for the cement industry in the form of refuse derived fuel (RDF) and compost.
In addition, the two other waste processing facilities with the same model are still in progress, namely Kranon waste processing facility which can process 40-45 tons of waste per day and Karangmiri waste processing facility with a capacity of 25-30 tons per day. Kranon waste processing facility is targeted to operate in the first week of May, while Karangmiri waste processing facility is scheduled to operate by the end of May.
Singgih stated that currently the city government has to manage 200 tons of waste every day. This means that if all three waste processing sites can operate at maximum capacity, they can only handle 150 tons of waste per day.
We are trying to communicate more intensively with more detailed explanations to residents.
Therefore, he explained that the city government is also cooperating with private parties who can manage up to 60 tons of waste per day. In addition, while waiting for the completion of the Kranon and Karangmiri waste disposal sites, the waste will also be collected at 14 depots owned by the Yogyakarta city government.
In addition, the city government also plans to build another waste management facility on the former site of the Piyungan landfill. However, the plan has been rejected by nearby residents, resulting in a delay in its implementation.
"We are trying to communicate more intensively with detailed explanations to the community. Actually, the waste disposal site (TPST) in Piyungan will not add to the waste, but it will process the waste until it is completely processed, not buried like the model of the previous Piyungan landfill (TPA)," said Singgih.
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Former landfill areas, now visible from the air in Sitimulyo Village, Piyungan District, Bantul, DI Yogyakarta, on Tuesday (5/3/2024), were previously used for waste accumulation in the main zone of Piyungan's landfill.
Upstream handling
Regarding the plan for building a waste disposal site in Piyungan, the Secretary of Yogyakarta Special Region, Beny Suharsono, stated on April 29, 2024 that the Governor of Yogyakarta has granted permission to the Yogyakarta City Government for the purpose. Now the remaining concern is how the Yogyakarta City Government will engage in dialogue with local residents to obtain their approval.
They stated that all matters should be discussed in a good and open manner, including the explanation of each party's rights and obligations. Aside from in Piyungan, Beny mentioned that the DIY local government is also ready to facilitate cooperation in waste management between Yogyakarta City and Kulon Progo Regency.
Also read: Racing to Defuse DIY Garbage Time Bombs
However, in addition to downstream management, Yogyakarta City must also optimize efforts to reduce waste upstream. Moreover, this city already has a big advantage, namely 666 waste banks spread throughout 45 neighborhoods.
Environmental engineering lecturer at Universitas Islam Indonesia (UII) Yogyakarta, Hijrah Purnama Putra, revealed on Saturday (4/5/2024) that waste management at the source can theoretically reduce up to 20 percent of waste generation. This is achieved through the separation of inorganic waste, such as paper, plastic, and metals, which have economic value and can be sold again.
The problem, according to Hijrah, is that Yogyakarta is far from the center of recycling industries in Semarang, Surabaya, and Jakarta. This makes some of the inorganic waste in Yogyakarta no longer economically viable due to the high transportation costs needed to bring it to those three areas.
The value of other inorganic waste will also be lower compared to the value of similar waste in cities with recycling industries. As a result, incentives for the community to sort household waste will decrease.
This also provides greater economic benefits for residents who sort and collect the waste.
Therefore, according to Hijrah, the government must take a role in facilitating the presence of recycling industries in DIY. Alternatively, the government can facilitate cooperation between trash banks and recycling industries in the three aforementioned cities, for example, by providing subsidies for transportation costs.
This will make more types of inorganic waste absorbable, thereby reducing waste generation upstream. On the other hand, this also provides greater economic benefits for residents who sort and collect such waste.
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Chili plants grown with fertilizer made from waste processing thrive in Badran Village, Bumijo Sub-district, Yogyakarta City, on Friday (22/9/2023).
Yes, all efforts and strategies need to be made for the success of waste management in Yogyakarta City. Moreover, the stakes are higher considering Yogyakarta is also the face of DIY in the eyes of the nation.
Apart from that, this area is a major magnet for tourist visits from various parts of the country and abroad. It is difficult to imagine the impact if this tourism destination city were filled with untreated rubbish.
Also read: Waste Management Emergency in Indonesia
