City plans to use incinerators to handle waste
City plans to use incinerators to handle waste
Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
The city administration plans to procure four incinerators worth
Rp 1 trillion (US$101 million) each to burn a percentage of the
6,000 tons of daily waste produced in the capital, thereby
reducing the dependence on Bantar Gebang dump in Bekasi, West
Java.
The Bekasi dump, however, would still be maintained as a key
disposal area for at least the next ten years.
"We will build four incinerator plants, but they will not
replace the Bantar Gebang dump as we would still dispose of some
of the city's trash and ash resulting from the incineration for
the next 10 years," City Sanitation Agency Head Rama Boedhi told
participants of a panel discussion on improvements to the
capital's waste management system, organized by Warta Kota daily.
He said Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso has given the green light
for the procurement of the costly incinerators.
The first two facilities will be in Duri Kosambi in West
Jakarta and Marunda in North Jakarta. The Duri Kosambi plant is
expected to be operational next year, while the Marunda facility
will be ready within the next 5 years.
The agency has yet to determine the locations for the two
other facilities, but they would handle trash from southern and
eastern parts of the capital.
Rama reiterated that the presence of the facilities would not
adversely affect the environment around the plants, because his
agency would not make them "new dumps like the Bantar Gebang
dump."
"We won't let mounds of garbage pile up at the plants and
cause environmental problems. We will supply the plants with
garbage below their incineration capacity of between 500 and
1,500 tons of waste per day," he said.
The Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology
(BPPT) researcher Tusy A Adibroto warned the administration on
Thursday not to rely solely on the incinerators.
"Given that the operation and maintenance costs of the
incinerators are quite high, the administration should also
develop other waste treatment technologies, which are well
adapted to all types of garbage in the city, either organic or
inorganic waste," she said.
Learning from the experience of some developed countries,
including Germany and Japan, Tusy said that the trend was a
return to common technologies, like composting of the organic
waste and recycling of the inorganic materials.
She also warned that the use of incinerators would not be
effective, because they could pose dangers to human health and
the environment as well emitting toxic substances, which could
pollute the air if the administration burns plastic waste as
well.
"What we are afraid of is that the administration will fail to
properly sort the garbage amid people's ignorance to sort out
their own household trash," she said.
She highlighted the paramount importance of public
participation in waste management.
The administration has long complained that public
contribution in waste treatment is very limited.
Out of the mammoth Rp 400 billion of the agency's operational
costs this year, Jakarta residents only contribute Rp 10 billion
collected for garbage fees.