First in Sumatra: Pekanbaru City Government Introduces Waste-for-Cash Exchange

The Pekanbaru City Government continues to accelerate its city-wide development programme with the vision of making Pekanbaru a Green City. One sector receiving serious attention is waste management. In addition to improving waste collection performance, the Pekanbaru City Government will also provide facilities for exchanging waste for money for the public. This programme is the idea of Pekanbaru’s Mayor, Agung Nugroho, as an innovative effort to reduce waste volumes while raising public awareness of waste management. The programme is being implemented through a collaboration with Rekosistem, a waste management and material recovery technology company with the fastest growth in Indonesia. Through this partnership, the public can exchange various types of waste that still hold economic value for money. Pekanbaru Mayor Agung Nugroho said the programme is a concrete step by the city government in addressing the waste problem that has long been a challenge in Pekanbaru. “This is one of the Pekanbaru City Government’s efforts to tackle the waste problem. The public not only discards waste, but can also derive an economic value from it,” he said, on Sunday (8/3/2026). He explained that the public who wish to utilise this service must first download the Rekosistem app on their mobile phones. After that, users create an account before performing the waste exchange at the drop-point locations that have been provided. The types of waste that can be exchanged are quite varied, including plastics and plastic bottles, glass bottles, used cooking oil, paper or cardboard, metal, and even discarded electronics. According to Agung, none of the facilities available in this programme use the APBD. All financing is borne by a third party, namely Rekosistem. “All these facilities do not use the APBD. All of it is borne by a third party, Rekosistem. So the system operates digitally and is integrated,” he explained. In addition to providing drop-point facilities, Rekosistem will also establish a waste processing facility so that the entire waste management process runs on a system basis. The programme is even described as the first in Sumatra to provide an application-based waste-for-cash facility with a drop-point network across various strategic locations in the city. Here are the ten drop-point locations in Pekanbaru: 1. RTH Putri Kaca Mayang 2. Area near Wisata Alam Mayang 3. Area near Universitas Riau Panam Campus 4. TRC Pekanbaru Aman 112 5. In front of Ramayana STC 6. Pekanbaru Public Service Mall 7. Riau Main Stadium 8. Park near MPP 9. Panam Morning Market 10. Four-way junction at Rumbai Recreational Park With this programme, it is hoped that Pekanbaru residents will become more active in sorting waste from home and contribute to keeping the city clean while also gaining economic benefits from the waste they collect.