Recycling in Indonesia at a crossroads

Audio 01:39

By: Gabrielle Maréchaux Follow

With the fall in consumption, but also social distancing measures and finally the price of oil which has brought down that of new plastic, the plastic waste collection and recycling industry in Indonesia is more than ever at the crossroads paths.

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How can we reduce the tons of plastics that land in the oceans without jeopardizing the economy of waste collection and recycling? For the past few years, this has been a headache for Indonesia, second on the not very glorious list of countries that disseminate the most plastic waste in the seas but also home to millions of informal workers collecting the waste.

Because on the one hand plastic waste is the enemy of the ecosystem and the health of populations near landfills, on the other it is also one of the raw materials of the waste collection and recycling industry, a sector of the economy that has grown in recent years in Indonesia, after the announcement of China which has not accepted the import of waste since 2018. A major decision that relocated to Southeast Asia the arrival of plastic waste containers from countries around the world.

And if the balancing act between environmental objectives and the maintenance of the work of some three million workers were already complicated for Indonesia which has the task - at the same time - of banning single-use plastics in certain regions of the country, but also promised to boost the recycling industry in the coming years, the coronavirus pandemic has not helped matters.

The fall in the price of oil triggered by the shutdown of the world economy makes recycled plastic less competitive compared to new plastic which becomes very inexpensive.

Within the country, social distancing measures have also curbed the demand for recycled plastic, but also put some landfills on hold. With many informal workers, especially in waste collection, this slowdown threatens several million workers today who have nothing to eat, says the union of waste pickers.

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• Indonesia
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