INDONESIA MUNICIPAL SOLID

WASTE
Regulations and Common Practice
BASKORO LOKAHITA / TOKYO INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

Indonesia is located in South East Asia, which consist of more than 17,000 islands with a total population
of 237,424,363 in 2011 census. The country is divided into 34 Provinces, and five of them have special
status. The provinces are subdivided into cities (Kota) and regencies (Kabupaten), which are further
subdivided into districts, and again into administrative villages. Moreover, the village is divided into
community groups (RW) which is consist of neighborhood groups (RT). According to Act 18/2008 about
Waste Management, municipal solid waste management in Indonesia, is a government responsibility.

Article 28H paragraph (1) of the Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia Year 1945 gives the right to
each person to get a safe and healthy environment. The Constitution mandated the government to oblige
for providing public services in the waste management sector. It carries legal consequences that
government is responsible in the field of waste management although in the management and
operations government could partnering with business entities. Furthermore waste organizations and
community groups engaged in the waste can also be included in the waste management activities.

Indonesia has two main regulations relating waste management, Act 18/2008 about Waste Management
and Government Regulation 81/2012 about Domestic Waste and Domestic Waste-like Waste.

Act 18/2008 about Waste Management has mandated the need for fundamental changes in current
waste management. In accordance with Article 19 of Act 18/2008, the waste management are divided
into two principal activities, waste reduction, and waste handling. Section 20 outlines the three main
activities in the implementation of waste reduction activities, reduction of waste generation, recycling,
and utilization of waste. Those activities are a manifestation of the principles of environmentally sound
waste management called the 3R (reduce, reuse, recycle). Article 22, outlined five main activities in the
implementation of waste management activities include segregation, collection, transportation,
processing, and final disposing of garbage.

Domestic waste management and domestic waste-like waste activities mandated by Act 18/2008
determine that the whole society will be served and all the waste that generated will be sorted, collected,
transported, processed, and treated in the spot final processing.

With the enactment of Act 18/2008 on Waste Management, former waste management policies which
for more than three decades only rely on the approach of end of pipe using landfill, was changed into
reduce at source approach and resource recycling through the application of the 3Rs. Therefore, the
whole society is expected to change the outlook and treating waste as resource alternatives as far as
possible be recovered, either directly, the recycling process or other processes.

Five stages of handling, segregation, collection, transportation, processing, and final disposing of garbage
were carried out by the whole society, gradually and well-planned, and based on clear policies and
strategies. Government and local government in accordance with its authority plays a significant role in
implementing Act 18/2008. In this regard, Government Regulation 81/2012 about Domestic Waste and
Domestic Waste-like Waste is drawn up in order to protect public health and environmental quality,
reduce the occurrence of accidents and disasters related to the management of household waste and
similar household waste, as well as supporting sustainable economic development. In addition,
Government Regulation 81/2012 about Domestic Waste and Domestic Waste-like Waste is also expected
to be a reference in formulating local regulations and masterplan.

The general method in current Indonesian waste managements is collect-transport-dispose. The

authorities of waste management transport waste from collection points to a treatment facility or final
disposal. Most of the local authorities is undergo changes from open dumping to sanitary landfill.

- Sweeping Collecting Transport to Landfill

- Collecting Point Intermidiate
Treatment
or Landfill

Fig 1. Common Waste Management Scheme in Indonesia

Municipal solid waste management for each regencies or cities is the local authority’s responsibility.
Usually, they will only handle transportation from collecting point to landfill. Sweeping and collecting
from house to house is the responsibility of local RW (community group) and/or RT (neighbourhood
group). RT/RW will create and fund their own scheme to collect the waste and bring it to collecting point.
Typically, they will hire persons to collect waste from house to house using handcart. These person will
be paid by RT/RW management who collect the money from neighbourhood. They also will generate
additional income by selling recyclables from people wastes. Waste container from each houses are
provided by individual themselves. Handcart for collecting purpose is provided by collected fund from
neighbourhood. Wastes in collecting point is not separated. Organic, plastic, paper and even hazardous
waste such as battery are mixed together. Sometimes, scavengers are seen searching for recyclables in
collecting point.

Local authorities will transport wastes from collecting point using 15 to 20 m 3 open truck. This kind of
truck cause environmental problem such as bad smell and overflowing leachate. There are several
method which commonly used to transport the waste.
 - Temporary collection: Container will be placed in collecting point overnight and people will dump
their waste there. Truck will come to carry those container and replace them with empty one.
- Direct Transportation: Dump truck will come to collecting point several times a day to transport
waste to landfill.
- Transfer station: This facility have machine to increase waste density. Special truck will carry high
density waste to landfill.

Most of cities and regencies in Indonesia rely on landfill as a back bone of their municipal solid waste
management. Some remote area which didn’t receive services, handling their waste in various waste
such as, burning, composting, burying and etc. Figure below show waste handling trend in Indonesia in
2006.

Others: small scale incineration,

etc.; 16.17

River; 2.99
Open Burning; 4.79

Compost; 7.19

Landfill; 68.86

Fig 2. Percentage of MSW handling in Indonesia in 2006 (Source: SME, 2008)

Landfilling tend to develop problem in many way. Because of low budget, most of local authorities only
provide open dumping site for landfilling. Without serious monitoring, pathogenic and hazardous waste
from industry also slip thru the security and dumped in landfill. Scavengers and cattle also swarming in
this unhealthy and unsafety area. Almost everyday people get killed because of waste avalanche in
landfill area.

Leuwigajah Landfill Landslide

Leuwigajah landfill is landfill area that served Greater Bandung Area which is located is Cimahi City, 12 km
from the centre of Bandung City. Leuwigajah Landfill are managed by West Java Provincial Government
as a regional landfill. From the 23.5 Ha of its area, 17 Ha is allocated for Bandung City municipal solid
waste. Bandung City deliver 3000 m3 of its waste per day to this site.

The landfill was constructed in the valley on the outskirt of the forest. The original design was to perform
sanitary landfill in this area, but because of budget cuts, the authority only perform controlled landfill.
That’s why bad smell and leaching occurs and pollute the surrounding area. The failure happened on
February 21st, 2005. Prior to 3 days of heavy rain, 2.04 million m 3 of waste coming down like avalanche
through the valley. This accident killed 143 residents and the loss is up to 5 million USD. After this
accident, government started to think more seriously about waste management and treatment.

Recommendation for a better waste management in Indonesia

Waste management in Indonesia is created based on 5 aspects; Regulation and Policy, Stakeholders,
Technical and Operations, Financial and Public Participation. Current regulations is not enough to set
things clear. The integration of socio-culture and socio-economic aspects are needed in order to support
the management. This is mean that Indonesian need to changes their attitude towards waste. We
couldn’t longer seen waste as a filthy things, but waste should be treated as resources. Collaboration
between whole aspects of society is needed. Framework to realize this collaboration is needed. This
framework will describe the relation between people, NGO, government, mass media and corporation so
they will have distinct contribution for the waste management. This framework also explain master plan
for people behavioural changing. Various method from education to socialization are needed to civilize
people. By realizing this framework, people will see waste management as part of their culture and
economic activity.