Indonesia to Reregulate Imports after Trash Exports Controversy

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Indonesian Environment and Forestry Ministry (KLHK) recently talked about the preventions needed to avoid future waste smuggling cases in the wake of the international outcry on waste exports from a number of Western countries.

The KLHK’s Director General of non-lethal waste management Rosa Vivien Ratnawati offered that some of the phrases within Trade Ministry’s Decree No.31/2016 on non-lethal waste imports need to be rephrased.

“This includes proposing to acknowledge [paper scrap] imports from the green route to the red route if it is imported in a substantial amount,” said Rosa in a text message to Tempo on Sunday, June 16. This directly follows several cases of plastic waste discovered to be contained in a number of paper scrap imports to Indonesia.

Read also: Turning Trash to Gold

The “green route” is regulatory leeway to unload imported goods, which involve not conducting physical checks on the items imported but rather conduct scrutiny by document research after the items have obtained issuance approval.

Meanwhile, the “red route” heavily involves conducting physical and document scrutiny on the imported goods before a permit to unload is approved.

“We will also construct a law enforcement mechanism for those proven to be responsible in importing wastes,” said Rosa. However, the Ministry’s immediate short-term solution is to re-export imported scrap and plastic wastes that contain trash.

As of now, Indonesia followed the path of other Asian countries of refusing to be seen as a Western countries’ dumping ground by returning five Canadian-owned containers back to Seattle, the United States that contained trash. The containers did not just contain paper scrap but household wastes such as bottles, plastic wastes, and diapers.

CAESAR AKBAR