Jakarta, March (ANTARA News) - Garbage found anywhere in big cities is a headache as this could cause health problems or a catastrophe, such as floods that claim lives as has happened in Jakarta in recent years.

As a buffer town for the Indonesian capital city Jakarta, South Tangerang (Tangsel) Municipal City, Banten Province, is no exception. Tangsel City is growing rapidly and has a population of about 1.5 million.

The growing population is also coupled with increasing social problems, including waste, which continues to create a headache, with its volume reaching some 1,700 cubic meters every day.

The landfill (TPA), whose capacity is limited, in Tangsel City is no longer enough to accommodate refuse disposal.

The only TPA owned by Tangsel is the TPA Cipeucang in the Setu sub-dstrict. The 2.5 hectare TPA is expected to become full by the end of this year.

"Zone one of this landfill is expected to reach full capacity by the end of 2016. We still have zone two, but it is still in the land clearance process," the Technical Unit Chief of the Cipeucang TPA, Khrisna was quoted as saying by Kompas.com last August.

The problem of refuse has forced officials to find solutions that could transform this headache into an economically beneficial business that can provide profit both for individuals and the people while solving the problem of garbage in the society.

Therefore, the Agency for Public Cleanliness, Park and Cemetery (DKPP) of Tangsel City has launched a trash bank program to promote the participation of the public in the handling of waste, including household waste. The program adopts a 3R concept, namely reducing, reusing and recycling the waste by tapping its commercial aspect.

Up till now, the municipal government has facilitated its citizens in setting up 200 units of trash banks in Tangsel Municipal City.

"We have a target that each neighborhood unit (RW) will have a trash bank," DKPPs head of Tangsel City Taher Rachmadi was quoted by kabartangsel.com online media as saying late last year.

Besides that, the regional government of Tangsel City is now inviting domestic and international participants to take part in a competition called "ISoC 2016" to work out an innovative and creative concept that provides solutions for waste. For the competition, the regional government will offer a total prize of US$29,000.

Parties interested in joining the competition can access the link at: http://sociopreneurchallenge.com/ for details. The competition process will begin in May and the announcement of the winners will take place in November.

Held for the first time in 2015, the Indonesia Sociopreneur Challenge or ISoC has been turned into an annual event this year is called ISoC 2016. The ISoC 2016 theme this year is the same as ISoC 2015, namely "Waste Around US."

ISoC is an annual competition in Social Entrepreneurship, which focuses on solving specific issues through innovation that has commercial potential.

It was initiated by the Technopreneurship Program of Surya University, DKPP of South Tangerang, and the City Planning Development Agency (Bappeda) of South Tangerang.

The first competition was held in 2015 and aimed for Indonesian participants only. In response to the success, enthusiasm, and feedback from people, not only from Indonesia but also abroad, ISoC 2016 has also been opened to foreign participants.

ISoC 2016 is an international competition offered to domestic and international social entrepreneurs, who want to help solve social problems while tapping their commercial aspects through innovation.

By taking the waste problem in Tangsel City as its subject, ISoC 2016 is expected to net socio-entrepreneurs, who would offer various creative and innovative concepts with big impact.

According to the Bappeda Tangsel City Head Teddy Meiyadi, the competition is open to all elements in society, who want to take part in competing to formulate solutions for social problems through innovation that can exploit the commercial aspect.

Therefore, he called on all parties to support the program, which is expected to give birth to young sociopreneurs, who are able to produce creative and innovative solutions to trash problems with a wide impact as enshrined in the ISoCs slogan: "Simple Idea, Big Impact."

Unlike ISoC 2015, which was launched on a national scale with only domestic participants, ISoC 2016 has been upgraded into an international scale competition to net brilliant and innovative ideas for the handling of garbage in Tangsel City, based on the theme: "Waste Around Us."

The competition has three categories: Applied Technology (idea stage/startup stage), Apps (idea stage/startup stage) and Educational Campaign categories. Last year, it was held on September 14 and concluded on November 7 and was based on the same theme "Waste Around Us."

Held in response to the growing waste problem in South Tangerang, ISoC 2015 was attended by 93 teams from various provinces in Indonesia. The three category winners in ISoC in 2015 were announced on December 15, 2015.

The Mayor of the South Tangerang Municipal City, Airin Rachmi Diany, expressed appreciation for the winners while handing over the prizes to them. "The participation of the participants is a concrete realization of our efforts to make the better region," she said as quoted by the official website of the Tangsel Municipal City government.

She said, the theme "Waste Around Us" is presumably highly relevant, urgent and actual. The problems related to litter are problems that are faced almost in every area, including in South Tangerang.

With these winners, she is looking forward to innovative works that can solve the garbage and the environment problems. "Thank God, from ISoC in 2015 there have been some alternative solutions that promote technology to solve the waste problems. Hopefully, these alternative solutions can be immediately brought to the implementation stage," she said.
(T.A014/KR-BSR/A014)

Reporter: Andi Abdussalam
Editor: Kunto Wibisono
Copyright © ANTARA 2016