Partial Waste-to-Energy Solution

August 14, 2026 | 06:14 am

Danantara is aggressively pushing a major project to convert waste into electricity, but it fails to address the main issue.

THE Daya Anagata Nusantara Investment Management Agency (Danantara) is pushing ahead with a waste-to-energy project valued at Rp87 trillion. The project appears promising as it offers a profitable answer to a major problem facing nearly every region in Indonesia. However, converting waste into energy is a downstream solution that fails to address the root cause of the problem upstream.

The mounds of trash at landfills stem from the fact that Indonesia lacks both the policy and wisdom to curb waste generation at the source-starting from the mindset. Traditions, educational curricula, and state policies do not compel individuals to stop creating waste in their daily lives. Consequently, personal zero-waste initiatives run up against an unsupportive environment and prevailing circumstances. 

Per capita waste generation in Indonesia has risen over the past decade. In 2016, each Indonesian generated 230 kilograms of waste, this year the figure has climbed to 250 kilograms. The landfills can no longer accommodate the volume. In some locations, there were even explosions from methane gas accumulating within the piles of waste, resulting in fatalities.

Waste accumulates because people are not accustomed to sorting their garbage at home. Initiatives by entrepreneurs to establish recycling industries have not taken off due to a lack of supply. The government has not supported these efforts by providing incentives for waste sorting and recycling to bolster the circular economy. “Reduce, reuse, and recycle” remain nothing more than empty slogans as they are not backed by policies that actively encourage these practices.

Therefore, rather than spending Rp87 trillion to convert waste into energy, it would be more sensible for the government to use those funds to address the waste problem at its source first. The central government could allocate funds to regional governments to provide incentives for household waste sorting and for the recycling industry.

At the national level, the government could also mandate that industries reclaim the waste they generate. By establishing a waste credit mechanism—similar to the carbon credit scheme—the public would be encouraged to sort their waste and then sell it to producers. Manufacturers of consumer goods would collaborate with the recycling industry to process used product packaging.

This scheme has enabled other countries such as Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, and even Ethiopia and Rwanda, to manage their waste without incurring significant costs. Plastic credits are a circular economy scheme and a market-based mechanism for addressing the waste problem. Downstream processing of waste into electricity is not only expensive, but may not necessarily solve the main issue.

Moreover, Danantara plans to use the rudimentary method of incineration. The Bantargebang Integrated Waste Treatment Facility in Bekasi, West Java, has been using this method since 2020, yet it can only process 100 tons of waste, which is just one-seventieth of Jakarta’s daily waste output. The greater the volume of waste incinerated, the higher cost to operate the power plant.

Solving the waste problem requires a comprehensive strategy that is implemented in a phased and measurable manner. Converting waste into electricity is only a partial solution that merely addresses the symptoms, not the root cause of the problem.

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