ASLI Fellowship Seminar – Waste-to-Energy in Indonesia: Addressing Environmental, Commercial, and Funding Challenges for Effective Waste Management
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- ASLI Fellowship Seminar – Waste-to-Energy in Indonesia: Addressing Environmental, Commercial, and Funding Challenges for Effective Waste Management
October
14
Tuesday
| Speaker: | Jerry Shalmont Assistant Professor, Universitas Pelita Harapan |
| Moderator: | Associate Professor Kelry Loi Faculty of Law, NUS and Co-Director, ASLI |
| Time: | 1:15 pm to 2:15 pm (SGT) |
| Venue: | NUS Law (Bukit Timah Campus) Law Federal Bartholomew Conference Room (FED-01-02) |
| Type of Participation: | Open To Public |
Description
| In Indonesia, 38 landfills in Indonesia caught fire due to unmanaged waste. Unmanaged waste, particularly organic waste, generates methane gas, causing landfills to become overloaded and easily burned. This highlights the urgency of finding a solution to address the accumulation of unmanaged waste in landfills. The situation at the Bantar Gebang landfill, where waste has piled up to 60 meters, mirrors the 2005 Leuwigajah tragedy that killed 157 people and became the second deadliest waste tragedy in the world. As a solution, Waste-to-Energy (“WtE”) plants could be considered to reduce it and promote resource recovery through clean energy production. WtE can potentially reduce waste in landfills by up to 90%, preventing the release of carbon dioxide and methane gases. The Government of Indonesia has issued Presidential Regulation Number 35 of 2018 to accelerate WtE development. Nevertheless, from a total of 12 planned projects, only 3 WtE plants are operational as of 2025. It is therefore critical to revisit the operational and legal framework of the Indonesian WTE scheme to ensure the program’s sustainability. Some commercial issues are being discussed, for instance, the regional government’s understanding of the importance of WtE plants that affects the budget allocation, the calculation of the tipping fee, as well as the purchase price by PLN as the party authorized to purchase the electricity.
With limited state budget for this project, the Public Private Partnership (“PPP“) is seen as an ideal arrangement to urge the private sector’s involvement. Without a solid understanding of the importance of WtE plants, the collaboration process between the government and private sector through the PPP may be constrained because, by the end of the day, the investor will focus on their return on investment through tipping fees and electricity purchase prices. In addition, WtE has also faced criticism for being a superficial solution that primarily focuses on downstream waste management. Critics argue that addressing waste upstream—through sorting, recycling, and upcycling—would be a more efficient and sustainable approach to reducing the waste in landfills. Indeed, a more comprehensive approach, integrating both upstream and downstream waste management strategies, is essential for ensuring that WtE does not serve merely as a temporary fix.
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Fees Applicable
Complimentary