THE scarcity of public waste disposal and management facilities in the country has apparently prompted many people to burn their household waste out in the open, creating a whole slew of health problems, according to a global safety charity, which has urged the government to provide viable alternatives to save Indonesian lives as well as the environment.
A report on household waste management in the latest edition of the World Risk Poll, produced by Lloyd’s Register Foundation and published on Sept 17, highlights the urgent challenge of uncontrolled waste disposal in Indonesia, where 48% of households burn their waste, even though the practice is prohibited.
Open burning of waste has been proven detrimental to both the environment and the people due to the atmospheric release of black carbon, “a key contributor to global warming, as well as ‘forever chemicals’ that can be carried long distances and harm people’s health”, the report says.
An estimated “one million people die every year in lower- income countries from diseases related to mismanaged waste, of which open burning is a core part”, it continues.
“Household waste is a fact of life, wherever people live. But the way we dispose of this waste matters, impacting air quality and health, the safety of the people who work with our waste, and the environment,” Nancy Hey, Lloyd’s director of evidence and insight says, as quoted in the report.
“While residents of many countries benefit from safe and sustainable waste management infrastructure, in countries such as Indonesia, the lack of viable alternatives means the uncontrolled disposal of household waste, including hazardous open burning, is high,” she says.
Hey also suggests “the development of better collection infrastructure that leads to controlled disposal should be an urgent priority”.
Some residents on the most populous island of Java have confirmed the report’s findings, citing a lack of free and accessible waste management facilities in their neighbourhood as a cause of rampant waste burning.
Ilmia Safitri, a 32-year-old working mother who lives in Bantul, Yogyakarta, is extremely annoyed when a neighbour burns their garbage, especially since her child has a health condition.
Others had reminded that neighbour of the potential health risks of his action, she said, but he remained indifferent because he did not want to pay the waste disposal fee.
Ilmia said her neighbourhood employs an informal waste collector at a monthly rate of 50,000 rupiah (RM13.70) per household, as the community has no access to a public waste service.
She said that some villages in the regency had established waste banks. Such facilities work by purchasing recyclable waste, such as plastic containers and paper boxes, and organic waste for composting from residents, encouraging responsible waste management in the surrounding community.
The report is based on a 2023 Gallup survey that interviewed nearly 147,000 respondents in 142 countries and territories, including regions where little to no official data exist on safety and related risks.
Meanwhile, official data show that 37.87% of the 14.7 million tonnes of annual waste generated nationwide is not managed.
Most of the untreated garbage ends up in the local environment or illegal dumps, or they are burned in open spaces, in violation of the ban on burning garbage as stipulated in the 2008 Law on waste management. — The Jakarta Post/ANN
