July 3, 2025
JAKARTA – The government is urging national and multinational companies to take responsibility and do more to tackle the increasing volume of plastic waste, as the country is failing to achieve its waste reduction target with post-consumer trash continuing to drown parts of the country.
In 2019, the then-environment and forestry ministry issued a ministerial regulation stipulating a waste reduction roadmap by producers, with companies in food and beverage, manufacturing and retail sectors urged to use more environmentally friendly packaging materials.
The roadmap is a form of the extended producer responsibility (EPR) policy mandating producers to take responsibility for the collection, transportation, recycling and disposal of waste from their products after consumption.
But the implementation of the roadmap, which targets a 30 percent reduction of waste generated from producers by 2029, has been seeing little progress and participation from companies, due to a lack of oversight.
In a discussion hosted by environmental group Greenpeace Indonesia on Monday, the Environment Ministry’s director of waste reduction and circular economy development Agus Rusly said that only around 50 companies comply with the regulation.
“Any company generating pollution must be responsible for [waste generated],” Agus said, adding that the government would step up the enforcement of the regulation.
Read also: Waste processing rate in Indonesia only reaches 10 percent
The ministry is also mulling over upgrading the roadmap from a ministerial regulation into a Government Regulation (PP) or Presidential Regulation (Perpres), which can push other state institutions to adhere to its provisions.
But strong enforcement requires effective coordination between various government agencies, regional administrations and the private sector, said Greenpeace zero waste campaigner Ibar Akbar.
“The [environment] ministry can’t work alone,” he added. “The initiative is there, but now we’re waiting for the political will from the industry.”
The 2019 roadmap is an implementing regulation of the 2008 Waste Management Law, which mandates that every producer must process its unrecycled materials.
However, poor waste management has continued to haunt the country. The ministry’s national waste management information system (SPSN) recorded last year that 13 million tonnes of waste, or 40 percent of all trash generated nationwide, was left untreated.
Only 22 percent of 10.8 million tonnes of plastic waste produced was also recycled, according to the ministry.
East Java-based think tank Center for Indonesian River Studies (BRUIN) launched a brand audit on plastic waste found in some riverine and coastal areas nationwide, and found packaging from several big brands polluting the environment.
While 23 percent of plastic waste found during the audit was unbranded, BRUIN found most of the remaining trash came from major companies such as Wings Group, Indofood, Mayora and Unilever. Plastic sachets were among the most collected waste, according to the audit, conducted in 92 locations in 30 provinces between 2022 and 2024.
To help manage post-consumer waste, Unilever Indonesia has helped develop 4,000 waste disposal sites across 13 provinces, where at least 39,000 tonnes of its plastic waste was recycled last year, said the head of its environment and sustainability division Maya Tamimi in Monday’s event.
Admitting that the corporation could not sell sachet products forever “despite it being accessible for many people”, she claimed that Unilever is working to develop more sustainable packaging. But Maya said the company needed to learn more insights from consumers before pushing for the innovation.
Read also: Illicit waste burning reaches alarming rate of 48% Indonesian households
Echoing Maya, Danone Indonesia’s sustainable packaging circularity senior manager Jeffri Ricardo said that a sustainable packaging innovation would be effective in reducing the waste once every company is using it.
He suggested better oversight on the roadmap implementation, such as a tighter audit scheme and penalty mechanism for those who fail to adhere to the regulation. Jeffri said that unclear incentive and disincentive schemes under the roadmap caused many companies to not adhere to it.
“After all, sustainability cannot go without financial availability,” he said.
The Jakarta Post reached out for comments from companies mentioned in BRUIN’s report, but received no response.