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.