"Imported Waste" Drowns Housing Complex

KOMPAS/BAHANA PATRIA GUPTA

Residents sort out imported waste in front of their house in Bangun village, Pungging district, Mojokerto regency, East Java, on July 8 (8/7/2019). Most of the residents in the village earn a living by sorting out the imported waste from a paper factory to sell to collectors for recycling. The waste was imported from the United States, Britain, Australia and several Asian countries.

JAKARTA, KOMPAS — Residual materials from imported recycled waste has swamped Sidoarjo and Mojokerto in East Java, Karawang in West Java, and Serang in Banten. The materials are sorted and the residual waste is used as fuel at tofu factories in Mojokerto and the limestone industry in Karawang.By the end of June, residual waste in the form of plastic pieces had piled up in Tegalmaja village, Keragilan, Serang regency, Banten. Next to the pile of plastic residue, about 10 different waste sorting activities were going on under makeshift tents.

Keragilan district head Ajuntono said the waste came from PT Indah Kiat Pulp & Paper (IKPP), a publicly listed paper company. He refused to call the piles of materials as “waste”.

"That is not waste. That is a community business that utilizes waste. They get it, and then sort it and sell it," he said.

IKPP public relations and corporate social responsibility manager Arif Mahdali said that the local residents would protest if they did not receive the waste. The company produced 4,000-5,000 tons of recyclable waste every day.

"If [the raw material] is sufficient, it is taken only from local areas. If it\'s lacking, it will be imported," he said. Among the company’s waste materials is plastic waste, which is given to the Keragilan residents for reusing.

Plastic waste from imported recycled materials is also piling up and littering residential areas in Tamansari village of Pangkalan, Karawang. The residual waste is burned out in the open, while some people use it to fuel lime kilns.

KOMPAS/BAHANA PATRIA GUPTA

Residents sort out imported waste in front of their house in Bangun village, Pungging district, Mojokerto regency, East Java, on July 8 (8/7/2019). Most of the residents in the village earn a living by sorting out the imported waste from a paper factory to sell to collectors for recycling. The waste was imported from the United States, Britain, Australia and several Asian countries.

Kompas observed on Thursday (11/7/2019) pile of waste that had accumulated in the yards of residential homes adjacent to the office of the Tamansari village head.

Tamansari villager Ade Junaedi, 42, said that the imported waste had accumulated in his backyard because of a friend’s offer. He receives compensation for storing the waste in his yard, and has earned a minimum of Rp 5 million per month over the past year from offering his yard as a space to store waste.

Acting Tamansari village head Tetek Mufti and Pangkalan district head Usep Supriatna said they had told the people that the community could be disturbed by the open piles of imported waste.

Industrial needs

Industry Ministry agro director general Abdul Rochim said that imported recycled paper was necessary because of a shortage of the material in the domestic recycling industry. Of the 88 pulp

and paper companies in Indonesia, around 48 need used paper as raw materials while used paper comprises 100 percent of the raw materials for 26 companies.

About 6.4 million tons of recycled or used paper is used as raw material each year. "Meanwhile, only half of [this amount] is available in the country," said Abdul.

The domestic plastic recycling industry also imports raw materials. The Industry Ministry’s records show that 7.2 million tons of used plastic is needed for the industry each year, of which 2.3 million tons of “virgin plastics” are supplied domestically and 3.6 million tons of “virgin plastics” are imported. Locally supplied used plastics make up 913,629 tons of the raw materials.

"To meet the [raw material] shortage, the industry still has to import around 320,000 tons of used plastic as raw material," said downstream chemical industry director Taufiek Baawazier of the Industry Ministry’s directorate general of chemical, textile and other industries.

The raw materials used by the recycling industry are not always pre-sorted. Director general of garbage, waste and hazardous toxic materials Rosa Vivien Ratnawati of the Environment and Forestry Ministry said that she had returned five containers of used paper that was contaminated with other waste from Tanjung Perak, Surabaya, to the United States. Eight other containers are also held at Tanjung Perak for returning to Australia. In addition, the directorate general had inspected 58 other containers from Germany and the United States and issued a recommendation to the customs and excise directorate general that they be returned.

KOMPAS/BAHANA PATRIA GUPTA

Residents sort out imported waste in front of their house in Bangun village, Pungging district, Mojokerto regency, East Java, on July 8 (8/7/2019). Most of the residents in the village earn a living by sorting out the imported waste from a paper factory to sell to collectors for recycling. The waste was imported from the United States, Britain, Australia and several Asian countries.

Rosa Vivien added that 65 containers of imported used plastic in Batam had also been inspected. Of these, 26 containers from the United States, one from Australia, 11 from Hong Kong, nine from Germany and two from France were to be returned. (NIK/MEL/BAY/CAS/ICH)