Companies must treat their toxic waste: Sarwono
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)