Giant waste treatment plant desperate for customers

Giant waste treatment plant desperate for customers

BOGOR, West Java (JP): A new waste treatment plant, the first
in Indonesia and reportedly the largest in Southeast Asia, now
desperately needs customers to stay afloat.

The plant in Cileungsi, operated by PT Prasadha Pamunah Limbah
Industri (PPLI), began operation in January and will be formally
inaugurated by President Soeharto later in the month.

So far, it has only processed 2,000 tons of waste and looks
like it will be heavily underutilized unless it gets customers
fast. The plant, which cost $20 million, has a total capacity of
60,000 tons a year.

The plant is jointly owned by Waste Management International
of Britain, PT Bimantara Citra (a private firm owned by Bambang
Trihatmodjo) and the Environmental Impact Management Agency
(Bapedal), a government agency.

President of PT PPLI Patrick Heininger said that, based on the
company's survey, manufacturing plants in Jakarta and West Java
jointly produce some 99,000 tons of waste a year.

He said that, so far, 23 companies are already using the
facilities offered by his company, from the automotive,
petrochemical, chemical and battery industries.

Heininger said he hopes the government will soon urge
companies to have their waste treated at PPLI.

PPLI charges between $107 and $400 per ton of treated waste,
depending on the kind of treatment required. The rate includes
the transport of waste from the factories to Cileungsi.

Heininger assured reporters who visited the plant yesterday
that the rates are quite competitive.

"This price is lower than in Europe, and almost the same as
the United States," he said. He added that the rates could
further decline if more companies use the facilities.

The plants offers to treat up to 95 percent of all hazardous
waste, solid or liquid, produced by industrial factories in
Jakarta and West Java.

There is also a unit to recycle oil which can be reused in
cement factories. This part of the plant will be completed this
month.

All waste brought to the site are "stabilized" through
chemical processes and then dumped in a huge landfill nearby
which is also part of the PPLI complex, according to Heininger.

The plant, located in 53 hectares land in Nambo village near
Cileungsi West Java, is procuring 30 hectares of land which it
will use as a dumping site.

The stabilized waste in landfill is then covered with plastic
wrapper to avoid rainfall because it will be too expensive to
treat the additional water that would be contaminated at the
site.

"Water from the landfill is pumped to special facility to be
treated, then be used as a mixer in stabilizing the hazardous
waste," he explained.

Government officials said that a second waste treatment plant
is now being considered in Cerme near Surabaya, East Java, which
has the second largest concentration of industries in Indonesia
after Jakarta. (yns)