On September 22, 2022, The German-Indonesian Chamber of Industry and Commerce (EKONID), in cooperation with the Indonesia Packaging Recovery Organization (IPRO) and the DKI Jakarta Environmental Agency, with support from the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUV), held a hybrid seminar entitled “Waste Management – Shared Responsibilities Adoption in Indonesia and Abroad”.
This third in a series of seminars aimed towards promoting better waste management under the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme drew 70 online participants and 20 participants attending on-site in Tebet Eco Park, Jakarta.
As widely reported, the Indonesian government, through Minister Regulation No. 75/2019, has emphasized the importance of producer responsibility in reducing waste and achieving the target of 30% waste reduction by 2030. However, the implementation of the regulation continues to face challenges such as the absence of a collective collection system, lack of coordination among stakeholders, and the lack of infrastructure as well as financial support for the industry. EKONID, acting also under the initiative “Environment Protection Made in Germany”, seek to tackle these issues as part of its effort to combat the impact of climate change.
The first event, held in March 2022, highlighted the topic of waste collection for recycling efforts from the viewpoint of waste banks, while the second seminar, held in June 2022, facilitated a robust discussion on waste reduction and recycling initiatives from the retail sector. This third seminar saw a broader range of stakeholders, including business and organization representatives from India, Canada and Tunisia, discussing the need for sharing responsibilities.
“Waste management requires the involvement and support of a wide range of stakeholders, beginning on the household level and up to the highest political ranks. Therefore, we have sought to involve different stakeholders in our events,” said Martin Kohoutek, Deputy Executive Director at EKONID.
“In the future, we as EKONID, we want to support other EPR approaches, and if you want to know more about it you can check out our website,” he added, referring to the epr-indonesia – a website developed by EKONID with the support of the BMUV.
Following the various insights in implementing EPR provided by the international stakeholders, the event concluded with an in-depth discussion on the challenges and opportunities of implementing EPR in Indonesia with speakers from the Indonesian government as well as a number of waste-focused organizations.
During the discussion, Annisa Paramita, Secretary General at IPRO, expressed hope that German technological innovation could pave the way for an easier method of recollecting waste.
“That’s really what companies in Indonesia are looking for right now. And not just from the packaging of the product, but also the recycling technology involved,” she said.
Rita Ningsih, Head of the Waste Management Section at the Jakarta Environmental Agency, gave her appreciation to EKONID for organizing the event and for providing further international insights on the EPR implementation issue.
“And because Germany is already practicing EPR well, we hope that German companies can lead by example. Perhaps we could start by what can be more easily done under EPR in Indonesia,” she concluded.
About epr-indonesia.id
Developed by EKONID and supported by the “Environmental Protection Made in Germany” initiative of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUV), epr-Indonesia.id aims to be the primary source of all information on all activities related to EPR in Indonesia. Furthermore, epr-indonesia.id facilitates partnerships to contribute in the effort of achieving sustainability between economic growth and environmental impact. More at www.epr-indonesia.id
