Waste keeps the lights on in Bali

Waste keeps the lights on in Bali

Wasti Atmodjo, Contributor, Denpasar

Bali has long faced problems disposing of its waste. As one of the world's top holiday destinations, the island is gradually losing its attractiveness as it fails to deal with its garbage, and piles can now be seen in every corner of Denpasar, Kuta, Nusa Dua and Sanur.

The rapid growth of the island's population has worsened the conditions and has made the cities' urban landscape look ugly and dirty. Conventional waste processing is no longer adequate to tackle what has become a Herculean problem.

Introduced by the British Investor company under PT Navigat Organic Indonesia (NOEI), the technology called "Galfad" (Gasification, Landfill, Anaerobe digestion) is expected to be a win-win solution for the Bali provincial government, the ministry of forestry and the public.

The construction of a dumping ground on a 10-hectare plot of land in the Suwung area, one of the island's mangrove belts under the auspices of the ministry of forestry, was not an easy job.

In 2002, the regional governments of Denpasar, Badung, Gianyar and Tabanan in a grouping called Sarbagita, first allocated a plot of land for the construction of an integrated waste processing plant in Sembung, Tabanan.

However, the idea drew protests from local residents. Bowing to public pressure, the authorities later decided to utilize the Suwung dump, near Sanur.

After a time-consuming and costly effort, the local governments finally obtained a special permit from the ministry of forestry to use Suwung.

"As soon as we get a nod from the central government, our job will be to invite investors (into the project)," said Made Sudarma, the head of Sarbagita's Sanitary Agency.

The agency had received 13 waste processing proposals from countries, including China, the United Kingdom, Japan, Australia and Germany but only six were deemed to be promising. After comprehensively evaluating the proposals, the agency decided to go with the British idea.

The agency liked the Galfad technology because it was feasible and environmentally friendly, Sudarma said. "Studying the Galfad system we found it to cause a low negative impact on the environment."

In the processing of waste, PT Noei will be in charge of procuring the equipment for the high-capacity system.

The scale of region's garbage problem is indeed enormous. The four regencies produce 4,008 cubic meters of trash a day with Denpasar contributing about 65 percent of the total. It is estimated this year's waste total will reach about 1.46 million cubic meters. It will increase to 1.51 million cubic meters in 2006 and 1.56 million cubic meters in 2007 or an increase of around 50,000 cubic meters each year.

The Galdaf processing technology starts by sorting wet and dry organic waste. The wet and liquid waste such as fruits and vegetables are processed using a biodegrading system, while the dry and inorganic waste such as plastic, wood, scrap metals and concrete is processed separately.

The next step is to put all the processed waste onto a shredder machine and into a drying facility.

The Galfad technology consists of three processes. The first is the gasification process, in which organic material is processed to reduced oxygen absorption. This process works to transform dry organic waste into a gas mixture (carbon monoxide and hydrogen) that can be used to produce electricity.

In the second landfill gas process, waste is processed to stop poisonous and toxic materials from polluting the air and leaching into the soil and ground water.

The process includes covering the entire dump site with soil and the construction of perforating gas pipes. The methane gas produced by the process is later captured through the pipes for further treatment.

The third process -- anaerobic digestion -- transforms this biogas into electrical energy.

The Galfad technology is reported to be able to process around 400 to 500 tons of waste a day -- and produce 10 megawatts of electrical energy. The technology can reduce the volume of garbage by almost 80 percent; the rest is processed into fertilizer.

Galfad technology is being used in several countries, including the United Kingdom, Thailand, Malaysia, India and China. In Indonesia, Bali is the first region to apply this environmentally friendly technology. PT NOEI is still negotiating with the state-owned electricity company PT PLN about the sale of its electricity product.

Ketut Oka Surasa said the companies were "working on various 'technical' problems". PT Noei has proposed offering its electricity for Rp 546/KWH, while PT PLN wants to pay no more than Rp 400/KWH.

"The agency would get about US$1,000 per MW (per day) in royalties from this mutually beneficial cooperation," Sudarma said. It has signed a 20-year contract agreement with a British investor. "It is expected that in the second year, we will be able to start receiving the royalty," he said.

Under the agreement, PT NOEI will invest US$20 million into the construction of waste treatment plant and operational costs, while the four regencies would provide dumping locations, public relations services for the project and handle the transportation of the garbage to the dumping.

British Investor plans only to use 6 hectares of the 10- hectares allocated by the local governments. The remaining four hectares of land will be designated open space and green areas.