Danone-Aqua Supports Joint Research on Plastic Waste Interception
Jakarta. The Indonesian and the Dutch governments have launched a joint research project called Plastic Waste Interception.
The research will take place in areas around Pantai Indah Kapuk in North Jakarta. It will make use of the River Cleaning-Up System (RCS) that has been installed there.
The program will involve various parties from the government and commercial ones, including the Central Office for Ciliwung-Cisadane Rivers-Public Works and Public Housing Ministry (BBWS-PUPR), the Agency for Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT), the Jakarta Administration Environmental Agency (DLH-DKI), Danone-Aqua and Solid Waste Indonesia (SWI).
The research program is an extension of a memorandum of understanding signed in 2017 between the Indonesian government and the government of the Netherlands, and a further agreement signed in April last year to conduct a thorough research of Jakarta's rivers.
The goal of the research is to chart the movement of plastic waste in the rivers, find appropriate recycling methods for the plastic waste and work out the best method to collect plastic waste before it reaches the ocean.
Findings from the program will be announced a year from now. The data will be used to create a new method to manage plastic waste that will be integrated into Jakarta's waste management system.
The Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs, Luhut Binsar Panjaitan, said the new plastic waste management system will be replicated in at least 14 rivers in the capital to prevent plastic waste from reaching the ocean.
"When it comes to waste management, it's important for us to start developing a circular economic system. If we start to manage our waste more thoroughly, it will create more economic opportunities for the people," Luhut said in a press release on May 15.
On the same occasion, the president director of Tirta Investama (Danone-Aqua), Corine Tap, said this program shows Danone-Aqua's commitment to reduce plastic waste.
"We're proud to be one of the main strategic partners behind this research. We hope that our findings can provide us with [new] data and perspective about the composition, plastic waste stream, valorization and new recycling methods to prevent plastic waste from reaching the ocean," Corine said.
The RCS is part of Jakarta's waste management system. The machine extracts plastic waste from the rivers, moves them on a conveyor belt and then collect them in a temporary storage space to be sorted.
The RCS can process around 30 tons of plastic every day.
"We want to focus our efforts on three points, consumer education on recycling, packaging innovations and the development of waste collection infrastructure. These three points will help us reach our 2025 goals to collect more plastic than we use, use 100 percent recyclable materials and to use 50 percent more recycled materials in our bottles," Corine said.