House Commission XII pushes for waste management to become an economically valuable system

House of Representatives Commission XII Chairman Bambang Patijaya is encouraging a shift in Indonesia’s waste management from a collect-and-dispose pattern to a system that holds economic value, thereby benefiting the community. “Our waste management is still project-based; it has not been built as a complete system,” he said during a Waste Reduction Technical Guidance event in Pangkalpinang, Bangka Belitung, on Wednesday, according to a statement received in Jakarta.

The legislator, who focuses on energy and environmental affairs, stated that the global environmental crisis demands a change in perspective towards waste. He noted that unmanaged waste piles contribute to greenhouse gas emissions, while rising global temperatures are linked to an increase in hydrometeorological disasters.

He assessed that current waste governance is not yet well integrated, partly because waste that has been sorted by households is often mixed again during transport to disposal sites. Bambang pointed out that several final disposal sites still use an open dumping system, which produces methane emissions and pollutes the environment.

Therefore, he is pushing for the application of the reduce, reuse, and recycle principles. He believes plastic waste has economic value if sorted and processed correctly. During the occasion, Bambang also handed over 15 three-wheeled waste transport motorcycles and composter units, a collaboration with the Ministry of Environment, to strengthen community-based waste management. “We want to increase community participation in solving the waste problem. Waste that has been considered worthless must be transformed into an economic resource that benefits the community,” he said.