Indonesia makes a leap in green campaign

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)