Inorganic and Hazardous Solid Waste Management: Current Status and Challenges for Indonesia

This article focuses on household waste management in Indonesia, with particular emphasis on inorganic and hazardous waste. It seeks to identify the current situation and also aims to provide a review of the existing policies that are particularly related to inorganic and hazardous waste management. Kitchen waste is the highest fraction of household waste, followed by recyclable inorganic wastes such as plastic, paper and card board. The results suggest that the majority of householders dispose hazardous waste together with other household waste, which will then be disposed at the landfill Although the fraction of hazardous and toxic waste from the household waste stream is low, there is still the need to separate these types of waste in order to avoid soil pollution and the contamination of compost products that are produced from household waste. Policies for the proper management of waste through source separation and treatment are in place, although further implementation should be pursued to make them effective. At-source separation requires awareness and a strong will from the bottom-up, coupled with regulatory mechanism from the top-down, whereas application of automated sorting equipment would require capital cost. Further in-depth studies into the dynamics and mechanisms of source separation of domestic wastes are required.