BEKASI, West Java Province, Indonesia (Reuters) — Some residents of the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, frustrated by the mounting trash problem across the sprawling metropolis, have started taking matters into their own hands.
Hamidi, a young “green entrepreneur” became so concerned by the overflowing Jakarta city dump that he began turning discarded plastic into fuel.
“At the very beginning I just wanted to start a business,” said Hamidi, who started his waste-to-energy initiative a year ago in Tangerang, a satellite city about 25 km (15 miles) west of Jakarta.
“But through the process I learned about the increasing trash problem in the environment and I thought this is a problem that needs to be resolved,” said Hamidi, who is one of only a small group of individuals and NGOs stepping in to manage waste and calling on local governments to help fund similar projects.
Hamidi recycles 25 kg (55 lb) of waste daily by burning plastic and distilling the resulting vapour into liquid fuel.
The process requires the plastic waste to be heated up in a steel container with a stove to get to a certain temperature. It then becomes gas and evaporates through a pipe where it goes through a distillation process to get the final product of liquid fuel. It takes four hours to complete the whole process. In the end three types of fuel are created: liquid fuel similar to gasoline, diesel fuel and kerosene.
So far he only uses it to fuel his own personal scooter but he hopes the government will help him to increase his production capacity and help to reduce hazardous plastic waste from environment.
Most households in metropolitan Jakarta either don’t recycle at all or are serviced by individual scavengers who pick through trash to sell to recycling plants.
The Bantargebang landfill on the outskirts of the city receives more than 6,000 tonnes of trash from Jakarta every day. There are some schemes in place to turn organic waste into fertilizer and recycled plastic.
“We compost more than 500 tons per day and then we recycle the plastics using our own units to produce 25 tons of plastic pellets each day,” August Toruan, manager of the waste treatment place told Reuters.
Nevertheless, its waste-treatment facilities are struggling to keep pace, resulting in mountains of trash that pose environmental and health risks.
With Jakarta and other cities facing growing problems as they run out of space, the central government plans to open up the waste management sector to foreign investment.
Experts say such a move could bring much-needed new technology and expertise.
Last month, the government rolled out rules requiring stores in several cities to charge customers for plastic bags.
“Each of the customers will be asked whether they want to pay for a plastic bag or not. If they said no, then they will not get a plastic bag for their purchase. We also suggest they bring their own shopping bag, or, we also provide eco-friendly shopping bags at an affordable price,” said Nenny Kristyawati, a manager of a local convenience store chain, Indomaret.
However, the fee of just 200 rupiah ($0.01) per bag is unlikely to be an effective deterrent.
Indonesia is among the world’s biggest generators of plastic waste. Greater Jakarta alone, with more than 10 million residents, generates enough trash to fill several football fields every day.
