…we have great targets and excellent programs, thus we must be able to realize them and we are optimistic (of achieving them).
Jakarta (ANTARA) - Indonesia's Environment and Forestry Ministry is optimistic about realizing the target of establishing no more landfills by 2030 to tackle climate change.

"Landfill will only be used to dispose waste which cannot be processed and has no price," Director General of Toxic and Hazardous Waste Management at the ministry Rosa Vivien Ratnawati said at the closing ceremony of the National Waste Festival 2023 here on Friday.

She added that the attempt is also aimed at reducing methane gas pollution originating from waste, which can worsen climate change.

Earlier, the Environment and Forestry Ministry launched the zero waste and zero emission program as a guideline for implementing waste management and emission reduction policies.

"We have great targets and excellent programs, thus we must be able to realize them and we are optimistic (of achieving them)," the director general remarked.

According to the National Waste Management Information System (SIPSN), Indonesia produced around 68.5 million tons of waste in 2022. Around 18.5 percent of the waste was plastic waste.

The ministry has also inaugurated the Clean Indonesia 2025 Program, which is based on Presidential Regulation Number 97 of 2017 concerning national policies and strategies for managing household waste and household-type waste.

By implementing the program, the Environment and Forestry Ministry is expecting Indonesia to manage 70 percent of the produced waste from the upstream to the downstream sector.

Ratnawati said her party has continued to raise the awareness of every household to handle waste independently by composting organic waste, sorting non-organic waste, as well as creating handicrafts from non-organic waste.

The ministry hosted the National Waste Festival from June 13 to 16, 2023.

The event aimed to seek solutions and formulate an action plan to realize the national targets on emissions reduction, resolve the waste issue in Indonesia, improve the contribution of waste management to national economic growth, as well as implement sustainable waste management.

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Translator: Sugiharto Purnama, Uyu Liman
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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