NGO: Closure of Suwung Landfill Inappropriate Without Concrete Solutions
Restrictions on sending certain types of waste to the Suwung Final Disposal Site (TPA) in Denpasar have given rise to several new problems. Residents’ rubbish is piling up on various roads. In addition, residents are opting to burn their waste as a solution to handling it.
This waste issue has drawn attention from non-governmental organisations (NGOs) active in the environmental sector, one of which is Yayasan Get Plastic Indonesia. The Executive Director of Yayasan Get Plastic Indonesia, Ayu Pawitri, assessed that the policy of restrictions leading to the closure of TPA Suwung is not entirely appropriate because it is not accompanied by concrete solutions.
“A policy is considered appropriate when socialisation and on-the-ground practices can proceed hand in hand. So I cannot yet say that this policy is appropriate, even though its spirit can be said to be good. The mechanisms are what we need to pursue,” said Ayu when interviewed on Friday (10/4/2026).
According to Ayu, several things should already have been in place before the TPA closure policy was implemented. These include socialisation and community assistance, the construction of waste processing infrastructure, strengthening of human resources (HR), and a waste management platform equipped with a data recording system.
“A policy does not run hand in hand with concrete solutions, and habituation in the community is an ongoing task,” Ayu stressed. If the current situation continues without concrete solutions, Ayu warned of one risk: a prolonged environmental crisis.
As a short-term solution, Ayu urged the government to prepare special processing facilities for inorganic and plastic waste, as well as to collaborate with the informal sector to accelerate the handling of accumulated waste.
Meanwhile, for the long term, Ayu emphasised the need for a comprehensive waste management system that encompasses community awareness, physical infrastructure, and processing technology. Everything must run simultaneously, not following after the policy has been implemented.
Field Conditions
Ayu revealed that rubbish accumulation is not prominently visible in some non-urban areas. However, once the focus shifts to Denpasar and southern Badung, the picture changes drastically. Household rubbish bags are scattered along protocol roads and piled up in front of shopfronts.
In fact, according to Ayu, on the one-way stretch of Jalan Setia Budi, dozens of residents were seen queuing to wait for a transport truck that never arrived. Then, in residential areas, some residents chose to burn their rubbish because waste collection services were not running normally.
According to Ayu, not all villages and sub-districts in urban areas have upstream waste management systems. The capacity of reduce, reuse, recycle waste processing sites (TPS3R) and waste banks is deemed insufficient to absorb the surge in waste volume due to the TPA closure.
In response to the field conditions, Get Plastic is running a programme to collect plastic waste twice a week around the Learning Centre to curb residents’ habits of burning plastic waste.
Ayu also regretted that environmental NGOs are rarely formally involved in the formulation of government waste management policies. On the contrary, several village heads have come directly to Get Plastic’s facilities to request assistance in managing waste in their areas.
“We more often receive visits from village governments who admit to difficulties in managing their waste and want to send their waste to Get Plastic,” Ayu revealed.