Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) has agreed to collaborate with the Yogyakarta City Government to develop more effective waste management strategies in response to the city’s growing waste issues.
The partnership aims to identify innovative and sustainable solutions, which were discussed during Yogyakarta Mayor Hasto Wardoyo’s visit to UGM, where he met with UGM Rector Professor Ova Emilia on Thursday, Mar. 6, 2025, at the UGM Central Office.
During the 1.5-hour meeting, Mayor Wardoyo sought insights from UGM experts and waste management teams.
Professor Emilia stated that UGM, as a higher education institution, possesses research and technological resources that can support more efficient and environmentally friendly waste management.
“We have a waste management showcase at the Agrotechnology Innovation Center (PIAT UGM) in Berbah. She said that studies have been conducted on scaling up the technology, particularly for residual waste, monetization, and industrial integration,” she said.
She emphasized that waste management is a shared concern that UGM cannot address alone, making the collaboration an important initiative for improving waste systems in Yogyakarta and creating broader environmental and community benefits.
“This collaboration can be expanded on a larger scale to other districts and cities in Yogyakarta Province,” she added.
Mayor Wardoyo highlighted the key challenges in Yogyakarta’s waste management, including the growing volume of waste, limited land availability for final disposal, and the need to raise public awareness about waste sorting at the source.
“When we talk about industrial-scale waste management, it needs to be large. The city generates at least 300 tons of waste daily, increasing during holidays. I aim for all 46 waste depots in Yogyakarta to be clean within my first 100 days in office,” he explained.
He shared several current efforts, including budget allocations for waste carts and encouraging businesses to manage their own waste, limiting what is sent to final disposal to only residual waste.
However, he acknowledged these efforts have been insufficient and require university support in technology, policymaking, and public education, especially in encouraging waste sorting at the household level.
“There are three key areas we need to explore further in this collaboration: scientific input, management, and industrialization,” he added.
UGM waste management expert Professor Wiratni shared best practices in waste management and technology currently applied at UGM.
She explained that waste management technologies have evolved significantly from basic to advanced systems.
“What we need is orchestration among all these systems, not a fragmented approach. One reason Mayor Wardoyo’s waste management efforts haven’t succeeded is due to a lack of connectivity between the various systems,” she said.
She noted that approximately half of the 300 tons of waste produced daily in Yogyakarta consists of organic household waste.
If this organic waste is properly collected using the carts provided by the city, the subsequent management steps would look different.
She proposed that the first step should be to prevent organic waste from leaving the household.
“People may object that they don’t have space to process it, and biopores are not a solution since many are unwilling to dig. An alternative is stacked buckets, which I’ve tested in the Kali Code area. One household only needs one bucket, which produces liquid for fertilizer,” she explained.
If half of the waste problem can be addressed at the household level, the burden on city waste depots would be significantly reduced.
She added that composting techniques, such as those used by the Faculty of Engineering (FT UGM) and PIAT UGM, could be applied to leaf waste to produce compost.
Professor Wiratni suggested that this year’s thematic Community Service Program (KKN) in Yogyakarta could focus on waste management. Her team would prepare a catalog of composting methods to distribute to the community.
“Sometimes people just don’t know how to do it. It’s not that they’re unwilling. Hopefully, this can solve half of the problem,” she said.
At the end of the discussion, the mayor expressed his interest in expanding the collaboration to include two additional initiatives: the One Village One Sister University program, which empowers local communities while serving as educational material for universities, and the Food Bank initiative, which manages the distribution of food to those in need.
The Food Bank program is expected to improve community welfare in Yogyakarta by ensuring better food access and more efficient resource distribution.
Author: Triya Andriyani
Post-editor: Lintang
Photographer: Firsto