Used Battery Dealers Play Role in Lead Pollution

KOMPAS/BENEDIKTUS KRISNA YOGATAMA

Molds used for smelted used batteries are scattered around an illegal used battery smelter in Kampung Janada Inpres, Jagabaya village, Parung Panjang district, Bogor regency, West Java, Monday (20/08/2018). Collecting used batteries without permission and melting them violates the regulations on the management of hazardous waste materials.

BOGOR, KOMPAS – Lead dust pollution is closely linked to the role of used battery dealers and their monopoly over the used battery business supply chain. These dealers help perpetuate illegal battery smelting businesses.

Illegal used battery smelters in Bogor and Tangerang regencies, a major cause of lead pollution, remain in operation due to the supply of used batteries from dealers and brokers who buy the lead the illegal smelters produce.

Illegal battery smelter worker YY, 47, of Jagabaya village, Parung Panjang district, Bogor regency, West Java, said he had gotten used batteries from dealers, who in turn got them from waste collectors.

YY said he could smelt up to 3 tons of used batteries at once, from which he could get more than 1.5 tons of lead. This lead, priced between Rp 32,000 (US$2.11) and Rp 33,000 per kilogram, is then sold to Tangerang-based dealer Abk.

As a dealer, Abk is believed to dominate the used battery and lead market among illegal smelters in Bogor and Tangerang regencies, the two regions with the largest number of illegal battery smelters around Jakarta.

Used battery smelter worker Fin, 25, also mentioned Abk’s name. Fin works at Pasar Kemis, Tangerang regency. He said his boss sold his produced lead exclusively to Abk. “Abk buys the lead smelted here. Only him,” he said.

Disruption

The huge number of used batteries in circulation among illegal smelters and dealers has led to production capability reduction in three of the five legal battery-smelting businesses with licenses from the Environment and Forestry Ministry.

The three companies are members of the Indonesian Foundry Industries Association (Aplindo) and have existed since the 1990s. They are: PT Non Ferindo Utama (NFU) in Tangerang, PT Muhtomas in Cikarang and PT indra Eramulti Logam Industri (Imli) in Pasuruan. The three companies have production capacities ranging between 14 and 120 tons a day.

PT Muhtomas has ceased production for the past five months due to difficulties in procuring used batteries. PT Imli can only produce 36,000 tons of lead, or 41.37 percent of its capacity of 87,000 tons. PT NFU is only producing at 70 percent of its total capacity of 96,000 tons.

PT Imli is complaining about illegal dealers’ domination of the used battery supply chain. “Illegal used battery dealers and smelters have clearly disrupted our business,” PT Imli director HM Chanafi said in Jakarta.

PT NFU director Alfred Sihombing said difficulties in procuring used batteries once led his company to ask for Abk’s help in ensuring supplies. Apart from being known for collecting lead from illegal

smelters, Alfred said Abk also controlled the used battery supply in Tangerang. “[Abk] is a dealer. He pays for used battery smelting and then purchases the produced lead,” Alfred said.

He added that prominent dealers like Abk could determine prices as they wished. “If we negotiate lower prices, the dealers and brokers will sell their used batteries to illegal smelters,” he said.

Aplindo chair Achmad Safiun said illegal used battery smelters have flourished since 1978. Nowadays, due to minimal government oversight, such illegal smelters remain in operation.

Achmad said the ministry should uphold Government Regulation No. 101/2014 on hazardous and toxic waste management. “Used batteries are hazardous waste. Special permits from the government are required to store, manage and process them. Legal smelters go to great lengths to take care of these permits. Why does [the government] let illegal ones operate?” he said.

Automotive battery department head Agustono Santoso of PT Santi Yoga, the official distributor of a national car battery brand, said the company was absorbing lead from illegal smelters up to two years ago. However, due to strict government audits, the company has been buying lead from legal smelters in the past two years.

“To be honest, in the past, we sourced our lead from traditional [illegal] and industrial [legal] smelters. However, nowadays, we only work with legal smelters due to [government] audits,” Agustono said.

Environment and Forestry Ministry hazardous and toxic waste collection and use subdirectorate head Amsor said it was difficult to prevent used batteries from going to illegal smelters. “We have enforced the law numerous times but the number [of illegal smelters] is too high,” he said.

The Committee for the Phasing Out of Leaded Fuel (KPBB) said it had seen the close link between lead pollution in the air with the high number of illegal used battery dealers. KPBB executive director Ahmad Safrudin said in order to control lead pollution, the first thing the government should do was cut off illegal dealers from the used battery distribution chain.

“Since 2014, we have said battery factories sell their products to shops, which in turn sell the batteries to customers. The distribution chain of used batteries customers trading in for new ones is controlled by brokers. Unfortunately, the government has no control over this,” he said.

Ahmad said used batteries should be collected by the original producers to better control their circulation. Used batteries should not be accessible by just anyone on the market. “Recently, we have also found illegal smelters in Medan, Lamongan and Sidoarjo,” he said (INK/ILO/BKY/ADY/MDN)