Aussie firm interested in compost project

JAKARTA (JP): An Australian company is likely to process the huge amount of garbage at the Bantar Gebang dump in Bekasi, east of here, into marketable compost, a city official said on Tuesday.

Deputy chief of the Jakarta Recycling Agency, Sugiono Soewahjo, said the foreign firm, called CASE, has shown interest in the project since July of this year and has already submitted a letter of intent concerning the project to the local authority in Bekasi.

"The company has the technology to excavate the waste and separate the organic and non-organic waste dumped in Bantar Gebang, while the Bekasi local authority will provide a site very close to the dump for the production of compost," Sugiono said.

Jakarta, he stressed, would not have to spend a single penny on the project but would be temporarily allocated adequate space for the disposal of its waste.

Bekasi comes under the jurisdiction of the West Java provincial administration.

According to Sugiono, CASE has a similar project in the South Sulawesi capital of Makassar.

Bantar Gebang, the city's only dump, is located approximately 40 kilometers east of the capital. The city administration initially planned to close down the dump and build a new one in Tangerang following regular complaints from local residents about foul odors in the vicinity of the dump.

Bantar Gebang, which has the capacity to handle some 12,000 cubic meters of garbage per day, currently receives 20,000 to 30,000 cubic meters per day. The local administration plans to establish a new dump in Tangerang in 2003.

Sugiono said senior officials from the Bekasi administration and executives of the company held a meeting with Governor Sutiyoso about the project recently.

So far, he added, the three parties had yet to decide on a detailed time frame for the recycling project.

When asked separately on Tuesday, Sutiyoso explained that the project had attracted the interest of many foreign companies, but he had yet to receive any reports on the realization of the project in the immediate future.

"Many parties have come to us and stated their willingness to take on the project. But I haven't heard about anything firm so far, or maybe they just forgot to send a report to me," he told reporters.

But, the governor added, he had no objection at all to any firms willing to take part in waste recycling.

"I'll fully support it as long as the city administration doesn't have to spend any money out of our budget and the garbage problem can be resolved," he added.

Earlier on Monday, City Sanitation Agency chief Saksono Soehodo said that Jakarta currently produces 60,000 tons of garbage per day, 65 percent of it in the form of organic waste.

Judging from the type of the garbage, it would be quite feasible to produce compost from the Bantar Gebang waste, Saksono said. (dja)