Bantargebang TPST landslide disrupts waste disposal from Jakarta

Illustration of a pile of garbage (ANTARA)

JAKARTA - The process of disposing of garbage from Jakarta to the Bantargebang Integrated Waste Processing Center (TPST), Bekasi City, West Java, is confirmed to be disrupted after a landslide occurred in the area which killed four people, Sunday, March 8. The incident forced the manager to temporarily close the landslide location zone and adjust the pattern of waste disposal.

Head of the Jakarta Environment Service Asep Kuswanto explained that the anticipation step was taken so that garbage in Jakarta did not pile up, one of which was by opening a new disposal location and maximizing other processing facilities.

"It must be disturbed. That's why we are also trying to open new disposal points that hopefully can anticipate the accumulation of garbage in Jakarta," said Asep in his statement, Monday, March 9.

Another effort is being made by encouraging the operation of the Rorotan Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) Plant starting Monday (9/3/2026). The facility has not been operating at full capacity, but is expected to help reduce the burden of sending waste to Bantargebang.

"Hopefully, the RDF Rorotan can operate even though its capacity is not full. We are still taking care of the trucks that will dump garbage into the RDF Rorotan, and try to maximize it, hopefully this condition will be resolved soon," he added.

The 4th TPST Bantargebang zone is now temporarily closed to support the evacuation process of victims and the investigation of the cause of the landslide.

The closure of the zone makes the manager have to divert waste disposal to other zones in TPST Bantargebang. In normal conditions, there are three to four waste disposal sites every day.

Garbage trucks that have arrived in Bantargebang are still being served. Meanwhile, trucks that are still in Jakarta are asked to postpone delivery until the evacuation process is complete.

"And until tonight we are still receiving because there are some garbage that have arrived in Bantargebang, we still serve and for the garbage trucks that are still in Jakarta, we try not to throw them away from the afternoon to tonight, until later the evacuation can hopefully be resolved," he explained.

Every day, the volume of waste sent from Jakarta to TPST Bantargebang reaches around 7,300 to 7,500 tons. Transportation is carried out by around 1,200 trucks.

The waste management system in all TPST Bantargebang zones still uses the open dumping method. The zoning is still being carried out to reduce the risk of landslides in the future.

"All the points in the zone in Bantargebang are still open dumping, we do not deny it, but we do continue to refine the zone so that these landslide conditions do not occur," he concluded.