No one needs reminding that Bali’s environment is under siege. What was not long ago a pristine setting is now punctuated with piles of garbage dumped by roadsides and over riverbanks and drains clogged with plastic. Smoky sampah fires are constant irritants to tourists and locals alike. Balinese often say to me, “We know we have a problem with garbage, but we don’t know what to do about it.”
Over a year ago the Ubud Rotary Club launched an initiative to collect garbage from every Ubud household, build a recycling centre and create community-wide awareness of the benefits of recycling. Ubud was selected as the location of the pilot project because it was a high-profile tourist destination with an obvious problem. The recycling centre was to have become a sustainable business model, replicable around the island, and establish Ubud as a progressive, environmentally-aware community.
Alas, in Bali, things seldom turn out as expected. After a year of (ahem) ‘sociopolitical stumbling blocks’, the location of the project was moved to Temesi, east of Gianyar. The banjar of Temesi warmly embraced the project, the Bupati donated state land and all obstacles were swiftly removed. A Memorandum of Understanding was signed in two days, new plans were drawn up in four, building began six days later in March and the recycling centre was operational on June 20, 2004. Yayasan Bali Fokus designed the centre, undertook the construction and provided the operating expertise.
The new objective was to build a sustainable, replicable recycling facility for a typical Indonesian environment as an alternative to landfills or incinerators. Landfills are notoriously difficult to control and need provisions in order to prevent the leakage of contaminants into adjacent groundwater. In order to burn effectively, incinerators must run at very high temperatures, and cleaning the exhaust gasses properly is prohibitively expensive. In Indonesia, it would require up to $80 in fees or subsidies to safely incinerate one ton of garbage.
Recycling, on the other hand, can be a profitable and sustainable alternative. It requires only about 2% of the investment of a large incinerator with the same capacity and, with its minimal running costs, is an ideal decentralised solution for developing countries. The local community also benefits from this more labour-intensive approach. Ideally, Bali would have about 12 such facilities, which could be built by the Regencies or by entrepreneurs.
Crunching the numbers for the Ubud recycling centre took into account the ‘richer’ recyclables which would have been collected from hotels, shops and expat households. At the Temesi centre, about 80% of the waste is organic. Where is the profit in leaves and old offerings? High-quality compost is now being prepared according to methods researched at the Jimbaran facility and internationally. Taking just 6 weeks to make, it will be packed, weighed and sold to Bali’s increasing number of chemical-free farmers and gardeners. The income from this and the sale of inorganic recyclables such as paper, plastics and glass will help cover the centre’s operating costs. What can’t be recycled will be disposed of in the neighbouring landfill. The cost of this model recycling centre was Rp 800 million, but it could be replicated at much lower cost.
The Temesi recycling centre was funded mainly by Rotary, the Swiss Development Corporation, OCPR of USAID and some private donors. Almost 60 members of the banjar are now employed part-time, a number that will increase when the project is fully operational. About 25 garbage trucks a day carrying 4 cubic metres of garbage will be using this facility. And the amount of rubbish going into the landfill is anticipated to decrease by 80%.
Phase Two will follow shortly. The addition of a further conveyor belt will increase the centre’s capacity while reducing processing costs. The purchase of a chipper and baler is expected to increase the price for which recycled plastic can be sold. A shredder will increase the portion of organic waste that can be quickly composted.
Hopefully, as the project evolves and grows, the benefits of having such a recycling facility in the community will become evident and other Regencies will take an interest in setting one up. And because the Temesi recycling centre will be monitored by its funding agencies, it will have the advantage of optimum management, transparency and publicity.
The model for the Gianyar project is the five year old Jimbaran recycling facility, which collects and processes waste from about a dozen hotels and the airport catering facility. Several 5-star hotels in the area supported the establishment of the project and buy back the compost the centre makes from hotel garden waste. A high percentage of recyclables like plastic, glass and aluminum ensured that the business quickly became profitable. It’s now a successful, non-polluting SME that employs dozens of local people.
The Temesi recycling centre is a pilot project and is expected to start covering its costs within a year. It provides a valuable model for not only Bali but Indonesia and the region. Simple, sustainable centres like this can provide solutions for local governments and communities, and address the increasing complaints of tourists who are disturbed by Bali’s solid waste problems and growing air pollution.
