Firm lends a hand to treat waste

Firm lends a hand to treat waste

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Governor Sutiyoso said on Tuesday that a company had proposed to
build waste processing plants in four municipalities to help
handle Jakarta's waste problems.

"The company has given a guarantee that it has the project
financing," Sutiyoso told reporters at City Hall after a meeting
with executives from PT Asia Waste Management.

Sutiyoso said that four of Jakarta's five municipalities --
Central Jakarta is excluded due to its limited space -- would
have their own waste processing facilities.

"The presence of waste processing facilities at the municipal
level will help minimize the cost of transporting the waste to
our main dump in Bantar Gebang, Bekasi," he said.

The project needs a total of 20 hectares of land in four
locations in the capital.

The company's president commissioner Jaegopal Hutapea said he
would provide the equipment.

"We have estimated that the company will spend between Rp 363
billion (US$39.85 million) and Rp 500 billion on equipment," he
said, adding that the company has received financial support from
four publicly listed finance companies in the Jakarta Stock
Exchange.

The facilities will transform the waste into bio-fertilizer,
liquid fertilizer and biodegradable materials.

"We have the technology to speed up the process of
decomposition by putting a certain enzyme into the organic
garbage. The decomposition process, which would normally take
more than a month, could take fewer than 10 days," Hutapea said.

The project will be carried out under a Build-Operate-Transfer
scheme.

"However, we have yet to discuss the details of the BOT term.
Normally, the term will be between 20 years and 30 years," he
added.

In the project, Jakarta will give a tipping fee for each ton
of waste processed.

"The fee will not exceed the existing fee provided by the
administration for Bantar Gebang dump. The operation of the
facilities will not burden the city's budget," Hutapea said.

Jakarta, which produces more than 6,000 tons of daily waste,
pays a tipping fee of Rp 53,500 per ton of waste to the Bekasi
administration for the operation of the Bantar Gebang dump.

Another waste processing plant to help absorb 1,500 tons of
the city's waste has been constructed in Bojong, Bogor regency,
but it is not clear when it will start operation due to strong
opposition from locals. Residents fear that the dump will damage
the environment and cause health problems.