Household Plastic Waste Management Model in

Indonesia

Qorry Aina, Sri Herliana, and Nur Lawiyah

School of Business and Management, Bandung, Indonesia

nur.lawiyah@gmail.com

Abstract. Household plastic waste has become a major challenge in

environmental aspects. Where the rate of growth of household waste is increasing

every year. Then what role has been made to overcome this? This study discusses

the management of plastic waste carried out in Indonesia using the literature

study data approach. Literature studies are obtained from various journal articles,

e-news, and reports that are accessed online. The results of the study show that

there are at least 4 aspects in the plastic waste management model in Indonesia,

namely, government policies, people, waste pickers, and waste banks.

Keywords: Waste management ꞏ Plastic waste ꞏ Household plastic ꞏHousehold

waste

1 Introduction

The relationship between household and plastic is a relationship between an inseparable

lifestyle. Especially with population growth in urban areas, making waste growth also

increases, especially in countries that have low and middle income (Yang, Ma,

Thompson, & Flower, 2018). This is a burden for the country to manage plastic waste,

which is mostly contributed through household waste. Plastics have many advantages,

such as strong weight but light, affordable prices, and suitable for various needs in the

modern era (Kasakura, Noda, & Hashiudo, 1999). In household waste, the use of plastic

is mostly used as bags to carry groceries, and packaging household products.

Continuous use every day makes the growth of plastic waste increase. This is inevitable

because, the company itself needs packaging plastic for the efficiency of selling their

products. Like in Indonesia, where Indonesia is the biggest contributor to plastic waste

in the world (Wahyuni, 2016). Therefore, plastic waste is one of the special focus in

waste management. Waste management in developing countries is more managed by

open dumping, even though this method has not been fully effective, because it has a

negative impact on the environment (Sekito, Prayogo, Meidiana, Shimamoto, & Dote,

2018). The government through its regulatory authority has made various policies to

reduce the growth rate of plastic waste. In addition, many environmental activists have

plunged to contribute to a healthier environment, through alternative management of

plastic waste. Various literatures have discussed a lot about the management of plastic

waste, therefore, this study uses a literature approach to determine the management

model of household plastic waste in Indonesia.

Aina, Q., Herliana, S. and Lawiyah, N.

Household Plastic Waste Management Model in Indonesia.

DOI: 10.5220/0009588300002900

In Proceedings of the 20th Malaysia Indonesia International Conference on Economics, Management and Accounting (MIICEMA 2019), pages 63-68

ISBN: 978-989-758-582-1; ISSN: 2655-9064

2 Literature Review

2.1 Household Plastic Waste

Mainland and earth's waters can be polluted by plastic. In fact, it is estimated that by

2050 the amount of plastic waste in the ocean is more than the number of fishes. Not

only that, plastic waste that is not handled properly can cause a variety of health

problems. Plastics are more widely used for packaging and are more commonly found

in household products (Rhodes, 2018). Increasing the rate of plastic waste is due to the

fact that plastic waste accumulates more than decomposes. Even some types of plastic

waste are categorized as "hazardous waste" for the environment (Sidhu & Desai, 2018).

Almost every aspect of household needs uses plastic for packaging, such as mineral

water, cooking products, toiletries, and other needs, even as in Indonesia the use of

plastic bags is still widely used to carry supermarket groceries, even though the

government has implemented a payment rule for plastic bags (CNN), as applied in

Malaysia (Zen, Ahamad, & Omar, 2013). The use of plastic bags is indeed a part of

lifestyle, providing a charge for each plastic bag is actually not enough to convince

them to use bags instead of disposables (Wu, Zhang, Xu, & Che, 2015)). The amount

of household plastic waste is there, because plastic only has 1 time of life, but the time

of the breakage takes a very long time. So that continuous plastic production and

consumption will increase the growth of plastic waste.

2.2 Plastic Waste Management

In Indonesia, plastic waste management is a big concern, because Indonesia itself is one

of the largest contributors to plastic waste in the world. This can be seen directly in

various waste dumps or open dumping. Where a lot of 'mountain-mountains' rubbish,

the majority of which come from household plastic waste. The Indonesian government

itself has given great attention to making regulations on waste management, namely the

Republic of Indonesia Law No. 18 of 2008 (Bphn.go.id, 2008)One of the applied

regulations is to establish a waste bank to collect various types of waste including

household waste, according to the type and character of the waste bank customers,

where the output of the waste bank is money. This system is effective enough to provide

education to the public regarding waste management from (Dhewanto, Lestari,

Herliana, & Lawiyah, 2018; Raharjo, Matsumoto, Ihsan, Rachman, & Gustin, 2017).

The waste bank itself was established directly by the government while it was also

established independently by the community to maximize contributions to a better

environment. The application of plastic bag payment fees for each shop also began to

be applied, although the response of the community was not fully familiar with this

regulation. Then another waste management that has long been applied is recycling into

a work that has economic value. Besides being able to become additional income, it is

also a medium of creativity, and education in waste management.

MIICEMA 2019 - Malaysia Indonesia International Conference on Economics Management and Accounting

3 Methodology

This study uses a qualitative-explorative approach, with the literature review media

originating from various studies on the management of plastic waste. The results of

data collection were analyzed to find out the plastic waste management model in

Indonesia.

4 Analysis and Discussion

From the results of the literature study that has been carried out, with the main focus

being the management of household plastic waste in Indonesia, a household plastic

waste management model is obtained as illustrated in figure 1. Plastic waste is waste

that can be managed with 3 R, namely, reduce, reuse, and recycle. Management can be

carried out independently on a household scale, as well as large scale within the

government regulation umbrella. The Indonesian government takes seriously to

suppress the growth rate of plastic waste in Indonesia, by making regulations in Law

No. 18 of 2008 as discussed in the sub-literature. Plastic waste is indeed difficult to

decompose, therefore 3R is needed to reduce plastic pollution. The exploration of 3R's

steps also varied, with many environmental activists directly involved in contributing

to the community in waste management. The following is a complete explanation of

the household plastic waste management model illustrated in figure 1.

Fig. 1. Plastic household waste management in Indonesia.

Waste originating from household waste has a different waste management

approach. For those who are accustomed to sorting anorganic and organic waste, even

in further specifications in inorganic waste, such as plastic and non-plastic waste, they

have a high awareness of sustainable environment. The government itself has provided

a waste management solution that is a win-win solution, namely through a waste bank.

The waste bank system is generally the same as other conventional banks, except that

Household Plastic Waste Management Model in Indonesia

waste banks use waste as a savings transaction, which is valued in rupiah. The amount

of savings depends on the amount and type of waste saved in the waste bank. The waste

bank will then sort again and carry out the EPR policy, or Extended Producer

Responsibility. EPR is a policy, where companies can take post-customer products,

which are generally types of household plastic waste. So, companies that produce

household needs with plastic packaging, are responsible for their products even though

the products are in the form of waste. In addition to implementing the EPR policy, the

waste bank can also sell the results of waste collection to other companies that require

various types of plastic waste as the company's main raw material. The plastic waste

can be processed to be made into plastic seeds and produced into plastic again.

Waste management, especially plastic waste in Indonesia is not maximal, so there

are still many households that do not sort their inorganic and organic waste properly.

This is where the role of waste picker becomes important, they take plastic waste that

has economic value, such as plastic bottles, plastic cups, and so on. The work indirectly

helps suppress the plastic waste population. Therefore, the waste picker usually picks

up trash in waste dumps around housing, roads, schools, hospitals, government

buildings, and others. On a large scale, they take plastic waste in a waste dump, which

is now a giant mountain of waste. The plastic waste they collect, clean, and sell, the

system is almost the same as the waste bank system.

Another unique waste management is to convert household plastic waste into

something that has selling value. This is also widely applied by environmental activists

as community empowerment as well as educational media regarding the management

of household plastic waste. The artistry of plastic waste does not require large capital

because everything can be obtained free of charge, it is the creativity that makes art

creations expensive.

What's new is that in 2019, the government implemented a policy to pay for plastic

shopping bags worth Rp200 (Liputan6.com, 2019). This is done to stimulate the

Indonesian population to bring their own shopping bags, so that the amount of plastic

bag waste can be reduced. The government has also implemented a policy that, plastic

bags provided by retailers, must be biodegradable, meaning that the plastic bags can

quickly decompose. (Kementerian Perindustrian Republik Indonesia, 2019).

The illustration of plastic waste management as shown in Figure 1 shows that,

household plastic waste management programs can be applied with the main focus of

the household sector itself. Households are directly involved in the management of the

plastic waste they produce, from various buying their various household needs. They

can deposit the plastic waste to become savings at the waste bank, get additional income

from the creation of waste that is made, or just sort inorganic and organic waste to make

it easier for waste employees to manage the waste.

5 Conclusion

From the results of the analysis and discussion conducted, there are four important

aspects in the management of household plastic waste in Indonesia, namely government

policies, people, waste pickers, and waste banks. These four aspects have an important

role in the management of household plastic waste with a different approach. Like

government policy, which regulates regulations regarding the management of plastic

MIICEMA 2019 - Malaysia Indonesia International Conference on Economics Management and Accounting

waste, so that the policy has a direct and indirect impact on the distribution of non-

biodegradable plastic waste. The policy of suppressing household plastic waste is by

requiring that plastic, especially plastic bags, be biodegradable so that they can

decompose faster than non-biodegradable plastic types. Then, the role of people or

those who are directly involved in the amount of plastic waste available, they have a

role in sorting waste, to make the creation of plastic waste into products that have added

value and selling value. From these creations can educate other people to care more

about the environment. Thus, they can become environmental ambassadors in their

homes and the surrounding environment. The role of waste picker is also not to be seen

in the eye, they contribute greatly to the management of household plastic waste, by

collecting, washing, and selling it. The output they receive is indeed money, but the

output received by the environment is much greater, that is, the environment is at least

not too heavy to bear the burden of growing household plastic waste. Last but not least,

a waste bank, a waste bank is one of the breakthroughs in genius household waste

management, where it converts waste into savings for its 'customers'. In addition to be

a medium for storing waste, several waste banks in Indonesia have also implemented a

variety of community development programs in waste management that are quite

interesting, so that they can attract community interest and increase their concern for

the environment

References

Bphn.go.id. (2008). Undang-Undang Republik Indonesia No 18 Tahun 2008.

Dhewanto, W., Lestari, Y. D., Herliana, S., & Lawiyah, N. (2018). Analysis of the business

model of Waste Bank in Indonesia: A preliminary study. International Journal of Business,

23(1), 73–88.

Kasakura, T., Noda, R., & Hashiudo, K. (1999). Present state of waste plastics management. The

Journal of Material Cycles Waste Management, 1(1), 33–37.

Kementerian Perindustrian Republik Indonesia. (2019). Menperin Targetkan Produksi Plastik

Urai Alami Naik 5 Persen. Retrieved from www.kemenperin.go.id/artikel/17549/Menperin-

Targetkan-Produksi-Plastik-Urai-Alami-Naik-5-persen

Liputan6.com. (2019). Mulai 1 Maret, Konsumen Bayar Kantong Plastik Minimal Rp 200 di

Toko Ritel. Retrieved from https://www.liputan6.com/bisnis/read/3906300/mulai-1-maret-

konsumen-bayar-kantong-plastik-minimal-rp-200-di-toko-ritel

Raharjo, S., Matsumoto, T., Ihsan, T., Rachman, I., & Gustin, L. (2017). Community-based solid

waste bank program for municipal solid waste management improvement in Indonesia: a case

study of Padang city. Journal of Material Cycles and Waste Management, 19(1), 201–212.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10163-015-0401-z

Rhodes, C. J. (2018). Plastic Pollution and Potential Solutions. Science Progress, 101(3), 207–

260. https://doi.org/10.3184/003685018x15294876706211

Sekito, T., Prayogo, T. B., Meidiana, C., Shimamoto, H., & Dote, Y. (2018). Estimating the flow

of recyclable items and potential revenue at a waste bank: the case in Malang City, Indonesia.

Environment, Development and Sustainability. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-018-0175-2

Sidhu, B. K., & Desai, B. H. (2018). Plastics Pollution: A New Common Concern of Humankind?

Environmental Policy and Law, 48(5), 252–255. https://doi.org/10.3233/epl-180084

Wahyuni, T. (2016). Indonesia Penyumbang Sampah Plastik Terbesar ke-dua Dunia. Retrieved

from https://m.cnnindonesia.com/gaya-hidup/20160222182308-277-112685/indonesia-

penyumbang-sampah-plastik-terbesar-ke-dua-dunia

Household Plastic Waste Management Model in Indonesia

Wu, J., Zhang, W., Xu, J., & Che, Y. (2015). A quantitative analysis of municipal solid waste

disposal charges in China. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, 187(3).

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-015-4305-0

Yang, H., Ma, M., Thompson, J. R., & Flower, R. J. (2018). Waste management, informal

recycling, environmental pollution and public health. Journal of Epidemiology and

Community Health, 72(3), 237–243. https://doi.org/10.1136/jech-2016-208597

Zen, I. S., Ahamad, R., & Omar, W. (2013). No plastic bag campaign day in Malaysia and the

policy implication. Environment, Development and Sustainability, 15(5), 1259–1269.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-013-9437-1

MIICEMA 2019 - Malaysia Indonesia International Conference on Economics Management and Accounting