How Chandra Asri Owned By Conglomerate Prajogo Pangestu Joins In Handling Plastic Waste: Making Plastic Asphalt To Educate Employees

Illustration. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - Data from the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, Indonesia produced 67.8 million tons of waste in 2020, which means that one resident produces around 0.68 kilograms of waste per day. Most of this amount came from households, namely 37.3 percent, traditional markets 16.4 percent, 15.9 percent came from the region and 14.6 percent came from other sources.

Seeing this condition, PT Chandra Asri Petrochemical Tbk (TPIA) or Chandra Asri has contributed to better waste management in Indonesia. The company owned by the conglomerate Prajogo Pangestu wants to play a role in overcoming the problem of plastic waste, by promoting the concept of a circular economy.

Through this concept, Chandra Asri hopes to maximize the use of materials in a circular manner to minimize waste production by recovering and reusing products and materials as much as possible, systemically and repeatedly.

"As a reliable growth partner, we actively collaborate with stakeholders in creating sustainability programs to address the problem of plastic waste. We are still continuing our flagship program, Asphalt Plastik, and are ready to collaborate with more partners to work together," said Director Chandra Asri Edi. Rivai in his statement, Monday, February 21.

Edi added that the company is also building an integrated waste management facility for IPST Asari in Cilegon and supports the DKI Government program, the Jakarta Recycle Center.

"Hopefully, more and more parties will participate in this initiative to jointly support the Indonesian government in achieving its waste management goals," he said.

In commemoration of National Waste Care Day 2022, Chandra Asri started an internal campaign #NabungSampahPlastik to encourage his employees to sort waste from home and reduce waste that ends up in Final Disposal Sites (TPA). The collected waste will be managed and processed by a third party to turn it back into raw materials and other useful products.

This campaign will last for one year and the total waste collection will be announced on National Waste Care Day 2023.

The concept promoted by Chandra Asri received a positive response from the Director of Sustainable Waste Indonesia (SWI) Dini Trisyanti.

According to Dini, the problem of waste in Indonesia, especially plastic waste, can be overcome with the collaboration of all stakeholders involved in the waste value chain from upstream, midstream, and downstream. Apart from that, it must also be supported in terms of technology and innovation. Then, it is also important to create an ecosystem for community waste collection and a waste bank that is integrated with recyclers.

"In addition to the problem of the quality of plastic waste which is still mixed with other waste, some types of plastic packaging also have a low value, due to limitations in technology, market, and collectibility. Therefore, apart from being important for sorting at source, the Government and Industry need to develop technology and models. business to overcome it," said Dini.

Meanwhile, an academic from the University of Indonesia, Astryd Viandila Dahlan, explained that through a circular economy, waste is processed back to its source or into other value-added products. Therefore, the community's paradigm of waste management has begun to change. Segregation of waste from the source can increase the amount of waste that can be recycled so that the potential for recycling will also grow.

"This can foster a circular economy orientation in the waste management sector. To change people's behavior, education, assistance and infrastructure provision are needed from stakeholders in waste management," said Astryd.