Indonesia makes a leap in green campaign
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia made a major leap in its environmental campaign yesterday with the inauguration of its first industrial waste treatment plant, hoped to give the nation an edge at the dawn of the era of eco-labeling.
President Soeharto, in a speech to inaugurate the plant in nearby Bogor, said that through the facility, Indonesia will meet some of the stringent environmental standards required in many of its exports markets.
"Our industrial products that fulfill the criteria to protect the environment have now become more competitive in the international markets," Soeharto said.
The Rp 200 billion ($95 million) plant, operated by PT Prasadha Pamunah Limbah Industri (PPLI), is the first in Indonesia and also the largest in Southeast Asia.
The plant, which can process up to 88,000 tons of waste a year, is located on 53-hectares in Nambo village near Cileungsi. The company is also procuring 30 hectares of land which it will use to dump the neutralized waste.
The facility is jointly owned by Waste Management International of Britain, PT Bimantara Citra (a company controlled by Bambang Trihatmodjo, the President's son) and the government's Environmental Impact Management Agency (Bapedal).
Soeharto said all countries, developed or developing, should build their own waste treatment facilities and stop using developing countries like Indonesia as a dumping site for their industrial waste.
The plant is also important to the Indonesian people.
The rapid growth of Indonesia's manufacturing industries has also entailed the production of toxic and hazardous waste which have to be treated with care if environmental and health problems are to be avoided.
The government on the eve of the plant's inauguration issued a regulation requiring that all manufacturing companies to neutralize their toxic and hazardous waste, either by installing their own equipment, or by sending the waste to the waste treatment plants that are now being considered in various parts of Indonesia.
Second plant
A second waste treatment plant is now being considered in Cerme near Surabaya, which has the second largest concentration of industries in Indonesia after Jakarta. There are also plans to build similar plants in Lhok Seumawe and in East Kalimantan.
The facility in Cileungsi started operation in January and has enlisted 23 clients from the automotive, petrochemical, chemical and battery industries.
Chief Executive of Waste Management International and Commissioner of PT PPLI Edwin G. Falkman said at the inauguration yesterday that the Indonesian government deserves credit for its foresight and courage.
PPLI staff have visited 450 companies in West Java and Jakarta during which some 250 companies have given PPLI samples of hazardous and toxic waste, out of a total of 100,000 thousand tons of waste annually.
Falkman said PPLI charges between $107 and $400 per ton of treated waste, depending on the kind of treatment required. The rate includes transporting the waste to and from the factories.
Falkman assured the audience that the rates are competitive.
"This price is lower than in Europe, and almost the same as the United States," he said, adding that the rates could further decline if more companies use the facilities.
United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Resident Representative C. Jan Kamp commended Indonesia for showing the will to meet Agenda 21 of the UN Environmental Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992.
The agenda on environmental action for the 21st century devotes special attention to the management of chemicals and hazardous waste, Kamp said.
The plant offers to treat up to 95 percent of all hazardous waste, solid or liquid. It also has a unit to recycle oil which can be reused in cement factories.
All waste brought to the site is "stabilized" through chemical processes and then dumped in a huge landfill nearby which is also part of the PPLI complex.
The stabilized waste in the landfill is then covered with plastic to prevent rainwater-seepage because it would be too expensive to treat the additional water that would be contaminated at the site. (prs)