Municipal Solid Waste Management with Citizen Participation: An ...

Municipal Solid Waste Management with Citizen Participation: An Alternative Solution to Waste Problems in Jakarta, Indonesia Aretha Aprilia, Tetsuo Tezuka, and Gert Spaargaren

Abstract The verity that ascertains waste as one of the contributors to CO2 emission leads the discourse to enter the limelight. Formulating suitable waste management scheme for developing countries such as Indonesia would require careful considerations that take into account the specific local context. This paper argues that in view of decentralization planning in Indonesia, the roles of local government and citizens in waste management are more imperative than ever. It provides an overview of current practices in waste management that takes the perspectives of the citizens as the end-users and the government as the regulator. The practices of solid waste management in Jakarta are observed at the municipality and community level in order to suggest further approaches to enable the initiative as a sustainable long-term solution. Keywords Community • Indonesia • Municipal solid waste • Public participation • Waste management

1 Introduction Waste is one of the sources of greenhouse gas emissions that contributes 1.4 Gt or 3% of the total CO2 emissions [1]. Although minor levels of emissions are released through waste treatment and disposal, the prevention and recovery of wastes avoids emissions in all other sectors of the economy [2]. Developing country

A. Aprilia (*) and T. Tezuka Department of Energy Science, Graduate School of Energy Science, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan e-mail: [email protected] G. Spaargaren Department of Environmental Policy, Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands e-mail: [email protected] T. Yao (ed.), Zero-Carbon Energy Kyoto 2010, Green Energy and Technology, DOI 10.1007/978-4-431-53910-0_7, © Springer 2011

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governments are facing various constraints in MSW management, therefore active public participation to support the household waste management is prerequisite. Currently there are 94 areas in Jakarta that already operate waste management with ‘3R program’. These areas can reduce waste of up to 485 t per day, which is around 7% of the total waste generation [3]. Among the areas that already undertake 3R program, there are several communities that are actively supporting the neighborhood-based waste management, such as Rawajati community. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the current existing condition of municipal solid waste management with the particular focus on household wastes. For the purpose of this research, the three main actors behind the community-supported neighborhood based waste management in Rawajati were interviewed and the waste management practices at the community level are observed.

2 Operational System of Community Waste Management in Rawajati Rawajati ward is located in Pancoran district, South Jakarta. The ward has been successful in motivating the community to implement the autonomous community waste management program [4]. The organic wastes that are produced by the ten neighborhood units within one neighborhood clusters in which 686 households reside at Rawajati ward that are involved in the community-based waste management scheme is around 2.67 kg/ household. It consists of 60% organic waste, 28% inorganic waste, 2% hazardous waste, and 10% paper waste [5]. Based on field observation and discussion with the main actors of waste management in the community level, the operational flow of waste management in Rawajati is presented in Fig. 1 below.

Home Transfer station

Organic Communal Inorganic

Hazardous & chemical

Final disposal site

Waste residues

Recycled

Collection bin

Collected by Cleansing Department

Fig. 1 Household waste management flow in Rawajati community (Source: Analysis)

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3 Barriers of Community-Supported Neighborhood Based Waste Management 3.1 Barriers on Policy Citizen participation is an increasingly important factor in planning and development policies following the decentralization legislation in Indonesia. The capacity of citizens to plan and deliver services have immediate relevance as the country moves to a decentralized planning model following Law No. 22 and Law No. 25, passed in 1999, which were followed up with Law No. 32 year 2004 on Regional Governance. The enactment of these laws has changed Indonesia from a highly centralized state, with governance, planning, and fiscal management partially ‘de-concentrated’ to provincial government offices, to a decentralized state with autonomous power over these responsibilities ‘devolved’ to lower levels of government. From a policy perspective, successful decentralization rests on the assumption that citizens through their participation in civil society organizations will undertake many planning and service-delivery functions previously the responsibility of various levels of government [6]. The same notion of decentralization applies to MSW management in Indonesia, in which the laws that are devised by the state government are to be followed by regional regulations as guidelines for the technical implementation. Currently, the implementation of MSW management in Indonesia does not refer to any specific guidelines or require any regulations compliance since the policy formulation is still at early stage. The follow up of the laws that should be translated into regional policies are still underway, which are expected to provide effective baseline for devising regional policy that largely depends on specific regional context. According to the Government Regulation no. 03 year 2001, the regional government has the main authority to manage the wastes in their respective jurisdiction area [7]. The master plan of waste management in Jakarta is mainly based on two major laws: Law No. 18 year 2008 and the Medium Term Development Plan Jakarta Province year 2007–2012. In 2006, The Minister of Public Works issued a National Regulation no. 21/ PRT/M/2006 on the National Policy and Strategies for the Development of Waste Management System. This regulation addressed that the communities are potential to be involved in the waste management; however it is not yet systematically developed. Under this regulation, there are several policies that were devised; among others are the minimization of wastes optimally from the source and improvement of active roles of the society and private sectors as waste management partners. Further to this, the President of Republic of Indonesia enacted the Law No. 18 year 2008 on Waste Management, which defines wastes as the remaining of daily human activities and/or natural process in solid formation. This law was established considering the waste management to date that is not yet according to the methods and techniques of sustainable waste management, therefore resulted in negative impacts


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upon public and environmental health. It is stated in the law that waste has been a national issue so that the management should be done comprehensively and in integrated manner in order to give benefits economically, health benefits for the public, and environmentally safe, as well as to enable behavioral shift in the society. Article 3 of the law specifically mentions that waste management is conducted based on various principles, including sustainability, benefits, togetherness, awareness, and economic values. With regard to sorting, it is regulated under article 13, which states that the managers of residential areas, among others, must provide facilities for waste sorting. The Government Regulation that serves as the regulation for implementation of waste management, which is to be issued following the Law No. 18/2008 on waste management, is not yet released. Due to the unavailability of regulation, the municipalities continue to operate waste management scheme without proper mechanism or guidance. There are no stringent measures or law that regulates the sanctions against illegal dumping, improper treatment and disposal of waste. According to Law No. 18/2008, waste generation must be minimized from the source to reduce the burden of waste transport and disposal. The law also highlighted the importance of community in undertaking measures for waste reduction to minimize the burden of management and treatment. However, as these initiatives are still voluntary, not many communities are willing to apply the initiative. Financing the municipal solid waste management (SWM) operation would require hefty funds; however the government failed to impose retribution for waste management from the households. The financing of SWM largely relies on the Regional Budgets and based on the Regional Budget of Jakarta in 2010, the allocated funds for Cleansing Department is only 2.9% of the total Budget [8]. The communities are reluctant to pay retribution as they have already pay the monthly community waste management fee. There is little awareness on the role of Cleansing Department in MSW management.

3.2 Barriers on Technical Operations Cleansing Department encounters problems with regard to infrastructure, such as lack of waste trucks and 40% of the existing trucks are obsolete [9]. This condition results in the service cover that cannot reach all Jakarta residents. Another constraints encountered by the department is the lack of available financing for promotion of 3R and community waste management for the reduction of waste generation. The people of Jakarta have little or no awareness on the existing problems on waste, and as the case of any mega-urban, the population relies heavily on disposable goods for convenience purposes. In the case of Rawajati, due to rapid urbanization some of the residents are what is termed as ‘seasonal residents’ or temporary residents. The residents’ mobility is therefore high, which leads to the urgent need to frequent socialization of the community waste management initiative. The initiative to promote the activities would

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also require the commitment and willingness of the community, especially the community leaders, to approach the new residents to participate. However based on the interview with the leaders, the decreasing commitment is encountered, which hinders the attempts to sustain the initiative. This condition is partly due to the fact that their involvements are voluntary; therefore no incentives are available to reward their activities. Another aspect that hinders the operation of this initiative is due to some of the householders that are not willing to participate. The majority of households that are not participants are mostly those who are working full-time and claim for not having the luxury of time and energy to sort and recover their wastes for composting and recycling. It is also observed that due to the small reward for undertaking such initiative, householders with good socio-economic status tend to resent the invitation to participate. At the same time, the rest of the householders that are already participate in the initiative also faces reluctance to continue such practice due to the little incentives obtained from producing compost and recycled handicrafts. The production of goods are not rewarded with compensation that commensurate their time and energy to produce them. The women group also faces problems with regard to the marketing of handicrafts. The society still has reluctance on using recycled products due to esthetical reasons. Therefore there is a very limited niche market for selling such products in Indonesia. In regards to composting, there is also an issue due to the seasonal needs of compost, which is mostly during nursery or planting period. That said, composts are not always marketable all-year round, and there is the need to have storage facilities during non-planting period.

3.3 Prospects for Sustainability of Initiative The success and sustainability of community waste management largely depend on the commitment and dedication of the community leaders and members. The underlying reasons for householders to be involved in the initiative are comprised of several pull and push factors. The pull factors for the proactive involvement of the community leaders and members to manage their wastes, in addition to environmental concerns, is also compensation or incentives to commensurate their involvement. The sales of compost and recycled products generate revenues to the householders although the amount is relatively small. Additionally, the push factors are including the conditions of environment that is threatened by the improper treatment of wastes. The community has been facing several problems in the past due to the improper waste management. The burning of waste and the use of incinerators within the premises created major air pollution that reaped complaints from concerned citizens. Based on the observation, the commitment and involvement of community leaders and members is decreasing subsequent to the relatively successful operation since 2001. One of the solutions to address this issue is to enable successors to step in and lead the operations for a certain period of time. There is also the need to raise the awareness of the society on the current waste crisis faced by Jakarta in order to


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encourage voluntary measures on the reduction of waste at households. Several measures to ensure the sustainability of initiative may include the creation of incentives to be incorporated in the Regional Regulation, which could be direct such as additional income, or indirect incentives such as the provision of waste sorting bins, waste shredders, etc. To address the issue on the limited market availability, government and private sectors may take part in marketing of recycled goods. For instance is to establish regulation for manufacturers to take back packaging of their produced goods and to assist in exporting the recycled handicrafts.

4 Conclusions This research emphasizes on the importance of community support in the current waste management scheme in order to ease the burden of high volume of waste to be disposed at the landfill. Indonesia has applied decentralization planning model that signifies the major roles of local governments and citizen participation in the planning and delivery of public services. In terms of municipal waste management, the development of policy remains in its take-off stage. The state government already devised the national law that is yet to be translated into local regulations that serve as implementation guidelines on municipal waste management. The current implementation of waste management is lacking clear guidelines and is based on self-regulating mechanisms within the neighborhood units. Retribution from the citizens cannot be imposed due to unawareness on the roles of government in terms of waste management as the self-provisioning scheme occurs. Moreover, retribution is yet to be incorporated in the law and is not treated as a regulatory instrument. As such, the government relies heavily on Regional Budgets as the source of financing. Given the constraints of the government to provide full service to all aspects of the waste flows, the current mechanism to involve citizen participation is prerequisite and needs to be improved. The community waste management practices has demonstrated the possibility of active involvement of the community in reducing waste generation through various schemes. While collective citizen-participation evolves in the typically low-to-medium income community, it cannot prevail without the existence of market mechanism and appealing stimulus. Acknowledgments The authors are grateful to the Global Centre of Excellence (GCOE) Program of Kyoto University’s Graduate School of Energy Science for the financial support of this research.

References 1. Stern N (2006) Stern Review: The Economics of Climate Change, UK Treasury 2. UNEP IETC (2010) Waste and Climate Change: Global trends and strategy framework, Osaka/ Shiga

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3. Cleansing Department (2010) 3R programme at neighbourhood and regional scales 4. Department of Public Works (2008) Best practices of solid waste management in Indonesia 5. Waste Management Task Force (2008) Integrated waste management in Rawajati ward, Pancoran, South Jakarta 6. Beard V (2005) Individual determinants of participation in community development in Indonesia. Environ Plann C Gov Policy 23:21–39 7. Jakarta Regional Government (2010) Regulation of the Jakarta Regional Government No. 03 Year 2001 8. Jakarta Provincial Government (2010) Regional Budget. Available online: http://www.jakarta. go.id/jakv1/apbd/browse/2010#browse 9. Cleansing Department (2010) Master plan of waste management in Jakarta