Indonesia Recycling System: Our Concentration Is Low

One of the material which has been recycling today is electronic waste. But, electronic waste occurred is not caused by expired dates, instead it is because of the improvement of the device itself. Smartphone, computer, laptop have been producing electronic waste as every semester the vendors launch new product. Some people argue, they produced hazardous waste which is dangerous. The others suggested, it must be recycled since the materials can be disposal. Therefore, do we need to organize electrical recycling center in every part of the world?

Description of Recycling System

It was in the season nine of “the big bang theory”, a sitcom serial television, Sheldon was given by his girlfriend a new laptop. The most intriguing fact is not when Sheldon did the farewell ceremony for the laptop, but on the contrary is when Amy invited him to do recycling. This indicates that the United States itself has conducted recycling center for electronic waste and one of them is computer recycling center.

With almost six billion people living in the Earth today, and we can assume only 10 to 20 per cent of them utilize a smartphone, computer laptop and tablet. Surprisingly, we have 1.8 billion electrical devices and the annual issue is the related industries have elevated significantly, which means every year people will replace their old gadgets into the newest. And it will be predicted to rocket in the next decade. With the growing of Asian market particularly in Eastern Asia and South-East Asia, we produce millions of tons of obsolete electrical which either is hazardous or not.

However, this number is extremely huge and mostly it can give big impact to the environment. Therefore, Perkins et all., which is quoted by Fauziah F. Rochman et al., stated that only a quarter and above a third from the total e-waste is recycled every year in Europe and the United States respectively. This implies to our concern about electronic waste in developing and under-developing countries, such as Indonesia. Unlike in developing or under-developing countries, this e-waste is recycled and they have converting it into new material which can be utilized as raw material in the future. It has been presenting as new income for developed countries.

Recycling System in Indonesia

Today, the number of Indonesian is estimated for two hundred millions of people. Based on understanding mentioned above, it is assumed that sixty millions of devices have been used. With the growing market of Asia itself, it is predicted that every person will change their electronic devices for every two to three years. Subsequently, Indonesia itself will generate 200 to 300 million of devices in the next five years. But, how the government of Indonesia consider about this?

According to ministry of environment in Indonesia, the regulations which are related to reduce, reuse and recycle have been published since 2012. Based on this, every person, institution and even more small, medium, and big enterprises must organize their waste. Environmentally speaking, the government of Indonesia has regulated that in every provinces which are consisted into districts and sub-districts must conduct an institution in managing and organizing the reducing, reusing and recycling of waste. This regulation stated clearly there must be a Bank of Waste or in Bahasa it is called Bank Sampah.

Based on the survey conducted Fauziah F. Rochman, Weslynne S. Asthon and Mochammad G.M. Wiharjo, the establishment of recycling facilities and infrastructure for electronic waste were not constructed in Yogyakarta. This result of study also reported that the recycling procedure was not established even though the landfill – for instance the Piyungan Landfill, Yogyakarta – is organized by the officials because the private organizations which are responsible to manage are located in Bekasi, West Java.

Action Needed in Recycling System in Indonesia

As the aim of the government regulation is not only for the institution but also for society itself, another study conducted in city of Pekanbaru is written by Restia Hendry of University of Riau in 2015 suggested different perspective. The Bank Sampah is not operated effectively because of six factors which two of them are communication and coordination with the society, and people’s perspectives in organizing the waste itself. Therefore, the socialization of reduce, reuse and recycle in Indonesia must be conducted broadly.

Although the government has acted directly through the recent regulation which is reducing the plastic from supermarket and minimarket, it had been considered by the society as ineffective and inefficient because they must pay it. Technically speaking, the demands of people in using the plastic as their shopping equipment are high. It means, the pre and post managing and organizing must be considered as our main focus in Indonesia.

In conclusion, facilities and infrastructures are important to do recycling procedure and the location of inventory of the waste is essential too. However, the government must conduct training and socialization to improve human resources for the facilities. Moreover, the extended procedure responsibility must be introduced either for the society and related institutions since the pre and post waste recycling are the major challenge in Indonesia.

Acknowledgement
[1] http://www.menlh.go.id/
[2] Fauziah F. Rochman, Weslynne S. Ashton and Mochamad G.M. Wiharjo, E-waste, money and power: Mapping electronic waste flows in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, Environmental Development, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envdev.2017.02.002
[3] Restia Hendri, Implementasi Peraturan Menteri Negara Lingkungan Hidup No. 13 Tahun 2012 Tentang Pedoman Pelaksanaan Reduce, Reuse dan Recycle Melalui Bank Sampah di Kota Pekan Baru, Riau, Indonesia, JOM FISIP Vol. 2 No. 2 Oktober 2015