During a meeting on waste management, which was followed online from here on Tuesday, the ministry's director general of waste, garbage, and hazardous toxic material management, Rosa Vivien Ratnawati, said that waste management covers the management of waste from upstream to downstream.
"In essence, I want Environment Offices to pay attention to (the goal of ensuring) landfills (are) only storing residues," she said at the meeting, which was attended by representatives from regional governments and business players.
She underscored that the fires recorded in 35 landfills in 2023 must serve as a lesson for all parties, namely that neglecting waste management can result in the production of methane gas, which can trigger fires.
She then asked regional governments, especially Environment Offices, to promote waste sorting at homes and support waste banks as well as reduce, reuse, and recycle transfer stations (TPS3R) as centers for sorted waste management in their respective regions.
These steps have been deemed necessary to reach the targets of reducing waste by 30 percent and handling 70 percent of waste by 2025.
During the meeting, Ratnawati also encouraged stakeholders to make use of technology to support waste management efforts, for instance, using methane gas to generate electricity and refuse-derived fuel (RDF) technology, which uses waste to produce energy.
"These must involve regional governments and the business world," she stressed.
According to data from the Ministry of Environment and Forestry's National Waste Management Information System (SIPSN), as of 2023, a total of 26.13 million tons of waste was generated in the country. Of the total, 33.77 percent was still unmanaged.
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Translator: Prisca Triferna, Raka Adji
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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