In the most recent Let’s Do Recycling! (LDRP) Waste Management Webinar Series “Creating a Recycling Ecosystem Starting from Sorting and Managing Waste in Realizing a Circular Economy” held in Bekasi, Indonesia on June 14, 2023, Trinseo continued to share its expertise in the plastics industry. The event was well-received with 25 online media coverage.
The June webinar was held in collaboration with Kita Olah Indonesia, an institution in Bekasi specializing in waste management and recycling. Operating since 2021, Kita Olah Indonesia has taken part in processing waste circulating in society. “Since the establishment of Kita Olah, we have processed approximately 900 tons of non-organic waste each year, particularly plastic waste, including polystyrene which is fully recyclable, and other plastic waste as well as multilayer waste,” said Muhamad Andriansyah, Founder & CEO of Kita Olah Indonesia. The process commonly conducted by Kita Olah is to clean and sort plastic waste based on its type / color. After sorting, the plastic waste will be chopped into flakes through a cutting machine which will then be melted down and cooled to become the raw material or plastic pallets that can be used by home industry manufacturers to be turned into new products.
“Educational and outreach efforts to raise the awareness of the importance of plastic waste collection and recycling, from cleaning and sorting of plastic waste before transporting to the processing sites, need to continue. The strive to become circular will not be achieved without the concerted efforts that involves the public, academics, governments, businesses, to the media. Thus, the acceleration of recycling activities has to be materialized before realizing a circular economy,” concluded Hanggara Sukandar, Trinseo’s APAC EH&S Leader cum Director of Environment & Sustainability Affairs, Responsible Care® Indonesia.
Waste management is one of the main challenges faced by Indonesia. Along with population growth and rapid urbanization, waste production continues to increase significantly. According to the Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forestry, an average person in Indonesia contributes 0.7 kg of waste per day and some of it ends up in landfills. Data from Sustainable Waste Indonesia revealed that only 7% of the 65 million tonnes of waste in Indonesia has been successfully recycled, and 69% ends up in landfills. A lot of waste that goes to the landfill is not first reduced through recycling.
There has been advocacy, educational and outreach efforts made by various institutions in order to reduce waste ending up in landfills, LDRP being one of them since 2019. “In the beginning, LDRP! was initiated because of the perception of many people that environmentally friendly products are products that can be decomposed naturally, whereas in fact it should be determined from the beginning of production to its entire life cycle,” explained Sukandar.
Click here to view a short video (in Bahasa Indonesia) of the event.