BSP vows to improve waste management

BSP vows to improve waste management

Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan

PT Bakrie Sumatra Plantations (BSP) says it has been improving
the waste treatment facilities at its plants in efforts to be
taken off the government's annual blacklist of the most polluting
companies in the country.

"We recently purchased another ammonia decomposer and an
aerator, both of which are expected further reduce the hazard of
the waste from our plants," BSP quality control manager Efdi
Ruzaly said last week.

"Our target is that we will have improved our waste treatment
by the end of this year."

BSP, which produces palm oil and rubber, has several
extraction and processing plants in its plantations in North
Sumatra and Lampung.

Despite having seven waste treatment ponds occupying an area
of 9.2 hectares, the state ministry for the environment last year
put BSP's rubber plant in Bunut, North Sumatra, on its notorious
polluters list.

Companies blacklisted for two consecutive years risk fines and
court action by the state if they do not clean up their act.

President director Ambono Janurianto said BSP should not have
been put on the blacklist and questioned the validity of the
ministry's audit.

"We should not have been blacklisted because our company has
actually been particularly concerned with the environment." BSP
had received the ISO 14000 international accreditation for
environmental-friendly processing in 1996, he said.

Ambono said an independent environmental audit from surveyor
PT Sucofindo in July 2005 showed that the ammonia and nitrogen
levels in the waste from BSP's plants were still below the
maximum levels allowed.