Indonesia Assessment of Waste Management Technologies

Indonesia’s INDC highlights waste management and waste-to-energy projects as key actions for achieving the country’s broader unconditional mitigation goal of a 26% GHG emission reduction by 2020. Further, Indonesia’s national climate action plan includes a target of reducing emissions by 48–78 MtCO2e from the waste sector by 2020. The Institute for Essential Services Reform—an Indonesian technical institution that works closely with the national government—partnered with Carbon Trust and the Government of the United Kingdom to assess waste-to-energy project barriers and opportunities. The assessment showed that Indonesian waste streams are high in organics. In 2008, over 50% of the country’s municipal solid waste was from organic materials. The high organic content makes Indonesia’s waste streams viable for waste-to-energy projects, which could address multiple problems. Decomposition of highly organic materials can lead to numerous environmental externalities, and it accounted for an estimated 25% of the country’s GHG emissions in 2005. Further, one of Indonesia’s largest landfills, Bantar Gebang, is approaching maximum capacity, so waste management policies have regained national attention. The following are several actions and good practices, detailed in the assessment, that are enabling implementation of waste-to-energy projects in Indonesia.

• Local-government responsibility for managing project implementation and monitoring waste management has facilitated waste-to-energy project implementation. Coordination strategies with the national government have supported this local work. In addition, the national government’s role in supporting key waste-management decisions has been articulated in national policy.
• Facilitating joint ventures between provincial governments and private companies for the construction and long-term operation of waste-management plants has supported waste-to-energy project deployment. Waste-supply agreements and power-purchase agreements also have incentivized investment in waste-to-energy projects.
• The livelihoods of some local stakeholders depend on waste picking, and integrating the interests of these stakeholders into the waste collection and supply process has been critical.
• Identifying deployment barriers has led to a better understanding of the complex relationships among discrete barriers (social, political, financial, and technical) and has enabled innovative solutions.