A study of plastic waste management effectiveness in Indonesia industries

Abstract

Waste management in Indonesia is less effective. According to Indonesia Statistics in 2016, the population in Indonesia reached 261,115,456 people and produced 65,200,000 tons of waste per year. Additionally, the growth of economy has an impact in industrial establishment. The activitity of industries lead to the increase of waste production. From the total waste piles, 85,000 tons per year are plastic waste. The waste pile will increase along with the projected increase in population and industrial growth. The considerable amount of plastic waste in Indonesia will be dangerous for the environment. Therefore, a strategy is needed to prevent the increasing amount of plastic waste in Indonesia. This study is conducted to determine the appropriate strategy to be done by identifying the type of plastic waste in Indonesia, mapping the flow of plastic distribution to become waste, and knowing the existing process of plastic waste management. A large number of plastic waste produce toxic substances swhich has to be handled properly. The root problem of the accumulation of plastic waste in Indonesia is the absence of an effective system in treating plastic waste. The result of this study is a solution that can be applied in order to reduce the accumulation of plastic waste in Indonesia by having industries across country to implement a sustainable system . Industries across Indonesia are expected to work together by creating and implementing a plastic waste management systems using a reverse logistics systems where plastic waste is returned to the factories that produce it. Afterwards, factories will manage the plastic waste by recycling and reusing them.