Danish waste delegation in Indonesia

At the start of November 2016 a Danish waste delegation has visited Indonesia.

Head of Development Jacob, Senior Development Officer Emil Salim, and Development Intern Kirstine from the Embassy’s Development Team visited landfill Bantar Gebang with the Danish waste delegation.

After the visit to the landfill, the delegation continued to the Clean Energy Information Center, Lintas. The Danish companies discussed waste management and Waste-to-Energy with Indonesian private sector and government representatives.

On 2 November Indonesia’s first Marine Plastics Debris Summit followed, inaugurated by Ambassador Casper Klynge and Indonesian Minister Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan from MENKO Maritim.

Globally, 80% of plastics leakage into coastal and marine environments comes from land-based sources. It is predicted that there will be more plastics than fish in the oceans in 2050 if the current leakages continues.

Poor collection systems combined with limited budgets for waste management collection, transport, treatment, disposal and infrastructure all contribute to Indonesia’s ocean plastics challenge.

The summit aimed to raise awareness and foster engagement to address Indonesia’s ocean plastics challenge in a comprehensive manner. The event brought together more than 200 city administrators, senior sector officials, global experts, NGOs and international and national companies, to discuss options for improved waste management and halting land-based leakage of plastics into Indonesia’s coastal and marine environments.

The summit was hosted by the Coordinating Ministry of Maritime Affairs, in close partnership with the Danish Embassy and the World Bank.

The second day of the summit focused on solutions. Global calculations estimate that Indonesia may be leaking upwards of 1.29 million tons of plastics into the ocean every year; positioning the country as one of the world’s main contributors to ocean plastics pollution alongside China, the Philippines and Vietnam. It has been calculated that if these countries reduced their plastics pollution leakage into coastal and marine environments by 65%, it would translate to an almost 45% reduction in plastics flowing into the world’s oceans.

The Danish companies, Babcock & Wilcox Vølund A/S, DONG Energy, Ramboll and DESMI Ro-Clean shared experiences and technologies on how to improve waste management at the summit.

Local NGOs, companies and associations also showed solutions and initiatives in the exhibition hall.

At the end of the summit, the Coordinating Ministry of Maritime Affairs announced a roadmap for developing a National Action Plan to address Indonesia’s ocean plastics challenge to be delivered at the World Oceans Summit in Bali in February 2017.

Source: Embassy of Denmark, Jakarta