In the past two years, waste management has become a major discussion topic among the Yogyakarta community following the closure of the Piyungan Landfill service. Waste piles have emerged everywhere due to the government’s inability to handle them immediately.
From January 2023 to April 2024, the average waste pile in Yogyakarta reached 1,300 tons/day. However, the waste management capacity was only 988 tons/day, of which only 150 tons could be processed daily. If ignored, the impact of the ever-increasing waste production will be far greater than what the people of Yogyakarta currently feel.
UGM Civil and Environmental Engineering Lecturer Dr. Ali Awaludin stated that many measures need to be taken to address the emergency regarding waste in Yogyakarta.
These include evaluating the operational capacity of all waste processing facilities, prioritizing repairs or adding equipment and resources through coordination between local governments in the Yogyakarta area, and utilizing technology for waste management and benefiting communities around the waste processing area.
“This effort needs to be done collectively by encouraging community participation starting from the village to the provincial level,” said Dr. Awaludin in a release sent to journalists on Monday (Jun. 10).
According to him, the numerous universities in Yogyakarta can also be invited to cooperate to produce waste management policy recommendations that align with the characteristics of the Yogyakarta community.
This needs to be done so that the emerging waste management movement can become a daily habit in Yogyakarta.
On the other hand, the waste management process in Yogyakarta and Indonesia, in general, still uses open dumping and landfill methods. Under such conditions, the volume of waste eventually exceeds management capacity. However, proper waste management has not been realized because it relies on open dumping and landfill methods.
“Without proper waste management program follow-up, the waste emergency has become a chronic problem in Yogyakarta until now. It’s very easy to find waste piles in every corner of Yogyakarta,” he said.
He pointed out that waste management in Yogyakarta relies on opening new landfills, which does not solve the existing waste problems. Instead of solving the problem, the decentralization of landfills causes public rejection in various areas in Yogyakarta. As a result, actions like illegal dumping become unavoidable.
Awareness of waste management is a collective responsibility of the government and society. If synergy between the government and the community is well established, it will significantly impact waste management.
“Waste management is everyone’s responsibility, and this needs to be accompanied by clear regulations and legal consequences for violations. This effort needs to be realized through various educational models and example activities so it can serve as a reference in waste management itself,” he emphasized.
The Vice Dean for Research, Community Service, and Cooperation, Faculty of Engineering (FT UGM), explained that at UGM, campus residents are encouraged to be aware of the importance of waste management.
This starts from efforts to minimize waste piles to utilizing research outputs produced by the academic community. There is even an appeal related to reducing the use of single-use bottled water, encouraging recyclable packaging, scheduling waste collection days based on type, and waste management instructions.
Waste management and sorting initiatives are emerging from more than the university level. Work units at UGM are also conducting best-practice activities related to waste management.
“Currently, waste management responsibility cannot be solely borne by the faculty management level but also requires support from all parties, namely lecturers, educational staff, students, and other employees,” he added.
Source-based waste management by categorizing waste according to type has been implemented for almost two years and has cultivated a habit among the academic community of FT UGM, who are more aware of efforts to reduce waste.
“We are renovating the Grahakara Grafika Reuse, Reduce, Recycle (TPS3R) Waste Management Site. TPS3R is an effort to implement research outputs related to waste management conducted by FT UGM lecturers,” he said.
Author: Gusti Grehenson