More composting needed in city's waste disposal

JAKARTA (JP): The disposal of the city's garbage would be more efficient if more groups were involved in composting, an official said.

The head of the Greater Jakarta Area Development Board, Anjat Lamey, said the constant problem of the lack of trucks and final disposal sites is due to a reliance on an outdated method used for more than 20 years and a lack of proper investment.

"The question of the lack of investment applies if we are talking about the old methods, mainly the transporting of garbage from homes to the final disposal site," Anjat told The Jakarta Post yesterday.

In Jakarta the sanitation agency can collect slightly more than 21,000 cubic meters of garbage per day compared to the 25,000 cubic meters produced by more than the nine million population. The other 4,000 cubic meters are left untransported, and some drift into city waterways.

Anjat was responding to observations revealed in a recent seminar on public infrastructure at the Ministry of Public Works.

Speakers at the seminar said Jakarta is no longer efficient when comparing congestion, pollution and the high cost of living to the public's expectations of services.

They said more investment from the private sector to build and manage infrastructure is one way out of the problems.

During the seminar, an analyst from the Ministry of Finance, Susiyati B. Hirawan showed investment needs in garbage management for the country's cities exceed Rp 2 billion. Meanwhile only 49.1 percent or Rp 1 billion is available by 1999, she said.

Urban observers also say cooperation between neighboring cities will be increasingly crucial, including the joint management of garbage.

Anjat said greater participation in composting, not investment, is the most important issue regarding garbage disposal in the city.

This would reduce the volume of garbage which needs to be transported to disposal sites, he said.

"The modern technology of sorting out organic and inorganic waste, and processing vegetable waste into compost, is relatively cheap," Anjat said.

Compost is a humus-rich fertilizer processed from yard waste, fruit and vegetable remains and other organic material.

"The question remains as to whether banks would provide credit to cooperatives and small companies who may be interested in the business," Anjat said.

So far very few residential groups process compost. These include residents working with a non-governmental organization (NGO) in Pasar Minggu, South Jakarta, and another group in Luar Batang, North Jakarta.

The latter involves a team of residents assisted by PT Spectra Matrik Indah, and an NGO working with the municipality and the federal government of Germany.

The fertilizers are sold to plant traders in Jakarta and Bekasi.

Anjat could not estimate how much could be saved in garbage management costs in the Greater Jakarta area if more of its 15 million residents made compost.

And he confirmed less conflict would occur if fewer final disposal areas were needed.

The Tangerang regency, for instance, has faced protests from residents near one of its garbage disposal sites in the Serpong district. The residents have objected to the further use of the plot for dumping garbage. (anr)