Development of waste management practices in Indonesia

Indonesia is one of the ASEAN countries with the highest population (about 220 millions) and growth rate of 1.2% per year (World Bank^c, 2009). The population growth brings about the increasing amount of the waste which becomes a problem faced by the government. Some factors influencing the quality of the service such as, lack of policies/strategies and financial support, low involvement of private sectors, inefficiency, and low community awareness led to The low Level of Service (LoS) of municipal waste management (MWM). The problem occurred in all steps of solid waste management (storage, collection, transferring, transporting, treatment) with the tendency to rise at the end point, landfill. Based on the study of waste management conducted by UNEP in 2004, it showed that only 33% of the indicators for LoS of MSW has been fulfilled by the government. It means that the level of service of waste management was still low. There were surely many factors influencing the low LoS of waste management in Indonesia. Therefore, the study attempted to make review of the development of waste management implementation in Indonesia by comparing the conditions in 1999, in 2004 and in recent time. The same indicators have been evaluated and showed that only one indicator has been changed during two decades. The result may be used as the input for specific analysis addressed to the cause study.