Irrc inauguration

IRRC Inauguration: New Era of Waste-to-Energy at Source in Indonesia Begins

Enthusiasm of participants in the inauguration ceremony of Integrated Resource Recovery Center facility in Jambi City, 29 January 2018.

THE Ministry of Environment and Forestry of the Republic of Indonesia (MoEF), United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), Jambi City, and UCLG ASPAC, marked and celebrated the beginning of new waste management, waste-to-energy at source in Indonesia in an inauguration ceremony of IRRC facility. Enthusiastically attending the celebration were 156 key participants representing 16 Indonesian local governments and its associations. They made good use of the opportunity to understand and envision replication of the model of pro-poor and sustainable solid waste management for secondary cities and small towns in Indonesia through a National Workshop of “Sustainable Development Benefits of Integrated Resource Recovery Centers (IRRC),” which was held back-to-back on 29 and 30 January 2018, Jambi City.

The two-day event brought to light the A to Z of sustainable waste management approach. Representing MoEF, Mr. Ade Palguna, Secretary of Directorate General of Waste Management, Waste and Poisonous Materials, encouraged local governments and local governments’ leaders to have innovations on waste management by mentioning related programs implemented in managing waste within the community environment, such as from trash to health program, health insurance with waste bank, and various award programs. He also shared various regulations and policies on waste management, targets, and indicators applied in Indonesia. In his remarks, he acknowledged that IRRC approach is innovative and he encouraged other

cities to replicate the system. Further, Mr. R. Sudirman, Directorate General of Waste Management, Waste and Poisonous Materials, also mentioned about national commitment to reduce waste generation up to 30 percent in 2025, and the materialization of the commitment in Presidential Decree Number 97/2017 on strategy and policy for waste management. The target is expected to be achieved within the period of 2017-2025.

Mr. Curt Gariggan, Chief Sustainable Urban Development Section, ESCAP, highlighted the introduction and benefits of IRRC. According to him, IRRC is easily integrated with local and national programs for sustainable development. It is also a cost effective way of improving sustainable development in cities by actively engaging citizens and building strong partnerships since IRRC emphasizes on the use of 3R (reduce, reuse, recycle) practices, increased society awareness, waste segregation at sources, improvement in transportation, and digestion.

Dr. Bernadia Irawati Tjandradewi, Secretary General of UCLG ASPAC, put great emphasis on the involvement of every concerned stakeholder, such as MoEF, Ministry of Home Affairs of Indonesia and local governments in discussing the problems and solutions of waste management. Specifically for local government, she mentioned the importance of leader’s commitment; the push to overcome challenges faced by the project during implementation. In that occasion, she also appreciated the intention of Jambi City to replicate IRRC in other 10 locations in the City. “This is one of the significant signs on the success of IRRC,” she added.

Hosting the national workshop, Dr. Syarif Fasha, Mayor of Jambi City, expressed his gratitude on the inauguration of the IRRC in the city. In that occasion, he mentioned Jambi City’s commitment on IRRC aligns, not only with the city’s vision and mission, which is to build environmentally friendly urban infrastructure that enhances people’s lives; but also with Indonesian national regulation mandated by Ministry of Environment and Forestry, Law Number 18/2008 about waste management. Inspiring attendees, Mayor Syarif Fasha shared experience in implementing the IRRC and was grateful that through IRRC, budget for solid waste management, particularly waste transportation could be reduced. He also expressed his commitment to replicate the IRRC in other identified sites in Jambi.

At the workshop, Mr. Masqood Sinha, Co-Founder and Executive Director, Waste Concern, the Technical Partner of ESCAP, also addressed many benefits of urban waste management at source. He specifically stated that IRRC is about how to transform challenges into opportunity to manage urban waste with a better approach. Technically, he explained that IRRC utilizes

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combination of anaerobic digestion and co-composting technology that produce biogas, compost, and electricity which can be used to meet society’s needs and minimize the cost of waste transportation and landfill areas.

Mr. Renung Rubiyatadji, Head Division of Waste and Hazardous Toxic Materials Management, Environmental Agency of Malang Regency, one of the two pilot cities of the IRRC project, shared the waste management update of the area, mentioning Malang Regency has four active and three reserved final disposals. Regarding update on the progress of IRRC project, he mentioned that facility enhancement of IRRC in Malang will be conducted this year.

Key Points of the Discussion

IRRC project site in Jambi City, located near Talang Banjar Market.

UCLG ASPAC highlighted key points in the discussion. Limited local funding to support the operational cost was mentioned as the main challenge faced by local governments. City representatives also managed to identify that IRRC performance could be improved by engaging academia and universities; they could, for example, conduct research to optimize the IRRC operational. It was also agreed that the project crucially required change of mindset: from

“transporting waste and disposing to landfill” to “recovering economic value of waste and disposing the unrecoverable waste to landfill,” in order to succeed.

Local governments, however, also raised the needs on smart practice book on IRRC replication roadmap to help local governments on designing IRRC faster than the pilot cities. Throughout the discussion, participants also exchanged knowledge on technical things and they agreed on four key words related to the IRRC program: partnership, behavior change (including paradigm change of leaders), environmental support (to ensure regulations and policies to implement the mentioned program), and proper management.

UCLG ASPAC thanked MoEF, ESCAP, Waste Concerns, local government in Jambi City and Malang Regency, and all related parties that contributed in the implementation of the IRRC pilot project in Indonesia.

Participants of the workshop uniting commitment to replicate the pro-poor and sustainable solid waste management.