Waste disposal is a major problem in Indonesia. In 2006, a city called Bandung in Indonesia is full of garbage because they ran out of space in their general garbage dumping site. The problem is getting bigger and bigger as it remains unsolved. Low awareness and indifference among the citizens take account in limiting the waste disposal solutions. Government should break the conditions by making stricter policy of waste disposal and limiting the use of unrecyclable materials.
The first solution for Indonesia’s waste disposal problem is making stricter policy of waste disposal. Indonesia has policies for waste disposal, but it is just not stern enough. Two kinds of garbage bin, orange for organic waste and blue for non-organic waste, are seen in the cities, but only small portion of the people follow the rules. Indonesia can learn from a clean country Singapore, which was dirty at first. Littering in Singapore would cost you S$500, while in Indonesia will cost you only $10. There is a very big difference in the charges. The government should make stricter policies about waste disposal, and thus people would abide the policies, which furthermore will contribute in overcoming the problem of waste disposal.
The second solution is limiting the use of unrecyclable materials. Plastic bags, plastic containers, and plastic bottles are very common things in daily life. In the hyper market, convenient store, and restaurant, plastics are being used. Plastic is a strong material, yet not so expensive, but it is not easily recyclable. What can be done for such useful but not so expensive material? Only government can do something about it. The changes of the mindset of environment over profit to be occurring bottom up, it should be top down. Government should set up a policy of limiting the usage of unrecyclable materials, such as increasing the prices and decreasing the productions. By limiting the usage of unrecyclable materials, government would be able to stack less unrecyclable materials in the garbage dump, and thus will ease up the process of waste disposal.
As Bath councilor Roger Symmonds said, “Zero waste is, to me, a grassroots movement from local authorities and people” (Collins, 2002), to overcome waste disposal problem in Indonesia, government should make stricter policy of waste disposal and limit the usage of unrecyclable materials. These solutions would furthermore have an implication of having the support of people in the back of overcoming waste and having less unrecyclable to be taken care of in the process of overcoming waste disposal problems.
Source:
Collins, J. (2002, Oct 3rd). Radical plans for waste could herald a big clean-up. The Guardian Weekly. p.25.
