Companies must treat their toxic waste: Sarwono
JAKARTA (JP): All manufacturing companies in Indonesia must, with immediate effect, neutralize the toxic and hazardous waste they produce, either through one of the waste treatment centers that are being constructed, or by installing their own facility.
State Minister of Environment Sarwono Kusumaatmadja announced the ruling on Friday on the eve of the inauguration of the country's first-ever industrial waste management center in Cileungsi, Bogor.
Non-compliance will lead to criminal prosecution under the 1982 Environmental Law in which the maximum penalty is 10 years imprisonment and/or a Rp 100 million (US$47,000) fine.
President Soeharto is today scheduled to inaugurate the plant belonging to PT Prasadha Pamunah Limbah Industri, which is jointly owned by the Bimantara Citra Group, Waste Management International of Britain and the Environmental Impact Management Agency (Bapedal), a government body.
"The decree commands all producers of hazardous and toxic waste to treat their waste," Sarwono told reporters on Friday when he announced Presidential Decree No. 19/1994.
"If they cannot manage their waste they must collect and send it to the waste management centers," he said.
The decree also opens up opportunities to build waste treatment centers in Indonesia, Sarwono said, stressing that they must all meet the standards set by Bapedal.
Besides the Bimantara plant in Cileungsi, the government is currently considering similar plants in major industrial centers in Gresik (East Java), Lhok Seumawe (Aceh) and Semboja (East Kalimantan).
The new decree also bars the import of all kinds of toxic waste effective immediately, Sarwono said, underlining that there will be no exceptions to this rule.
Exemption
There had been suggestions that battery manufacturers, which still rely on imported second-hand batteries for their material, would be exempted from the ruling, at least until there are enough used batteries in the country.
"Battery manufacturers must use materials which are available locally," Sarwono said, stressing that the move was made in compliance with the newly-signed Basel Convention that seeks to phase out international trade in all types of toxic waste by 1997.
Indonesia decided to move ahead of the deadline.
The decree regulates the way toxic and hazardous waste should be treated, transported, and dumped after being neutralized.
Companies that do not have their own treatment plant may store their waste for up to three months before sending them over to a treatment management center.
It also requires companies which produce such waste to report regularly to Bapedal on the way they deal with their waste.
Subject to these regulations is waste that is highly explosive, flammable, corrosive, infective, reactive and toxic. (prs)