A Case Study:

Business-NGO Partnership in Solid Waste Management in Bali, Indonesia

By Laila Suryodipuro

About the Author...

Laila Suryodipuro specializes in the areas of solid waste management, water supply, and sanitation, including alternative delivery mechanisms. She has a degree in environmental engineering from the Bandung Institute of Technology and a master's degree in urban and regional planning from the University of Hawaii. Ms. Suryodipuro is also an IP3 alumnus from the workshop on Regulation of Utilities and Monopolies. She was the coordinator and main writer of Indonesia's Agenda 21 chapter on solid waste management and was also involved in the design of Jakarta's main sanitary landfill and prepared environmental impact assessments for several waste disposal sites. Ms. Suryodipuro presented this case study at a workshop on "Making Cities Work" in Bali, Indonesia in June 2001. Ms. Suryodipuro currently works for PADCO, a Washington-based international consulting firm.

ABSTRACT

As urbanization takes place, Asian populations consume more each year, and land for landfills becomes scarcer in cities, making composting and recycling an essential part of any city's strategy for solid waste management is imperative. However, very little composting and recycling occurs, with disappointingly low rates of composting in particular. The case study describes how Wisnu Foundation, a locally based NGO, facilitated a mutually beneficial partnership in Bali among hotels, waste haulers, and swine farmers. As a result of this partnership, waste that was previously polluting beaches and rivers and threatening the sustainability of tourism, is composted and recycled and the residue disposed properly at city landfills. Employment is created in the process and the hotels use the results generated for setting higher minimization and recycling targets. This case is unique principally because the private sector and an NGO decided to address solid waste problems in the absence of local government action and made composting and recycling a cost effective activity.

The case study's recommendations offer a strategy geared towards disseminating best practices gained at the local level to fellow local governments as well as interested audiences. Moreover, the case demonstrates the need for local governments to take assertive leadership in promoting and expanding a variety of similar partnerships in the future.

Introduction: A Burgeoning Waste Problem in Urban Areas

Although it varies, most cities in Asia collect only 60-70% of their waste. The remaining waste is often dumped into streams and canals causing pollution of water bodies, floods, and stagnant water that allows insect breeding and other health hazards. Uncollected waste piles up in small informal dumps in neighborhoods causing the spread of diarrhoeal disease, nuisance, and unsightliness. Some households or neighborhoods whose waste is not collected burn their waste, causing air pollution. In Jakarta, Indonesia, waste burning alone is estimated to contribute to 20% of particulate-based air pollution.

The collected waste is usually disposed in open dumps without any soil covering causing organics and heavy metals to leach into the ground water. Waste pickers, many of whom are children, pick waste without protective clothing. The unaerobic degradation process in the waste dumps produces methane which is not only a greenhouse gas but occasionally triggers small combustions which in return produces smoke.

The problems associated with waste disposal sites in urban areas are no longer limited to environmental and health problems, but are also now becoming a problem of securing the site themselves. The Bekasi administration, a neighboring district west of Jakarta, which has been the main repository of Jakarta's waste, has recently said that is it is no longer willing to accept Jakarta's waste because of the pollution the dump is causing. Expensive plans for incineration or land acquisition and waste transportation to other neighboring districts will have to be made. Metro Manila was for a while on the brink of a waste crisis because it closed its main waste repository in San Mateo in Rizal province, but did not open up an alternative site.

The problem is no longer contained to large metropolises but is starting to occur in other urban centers as well. For example, tension is also developing between Ujung Pandang in Indonesia and its neighboring Gowa over a plan to place a waste disposal site for Ujung Pandang in Gowa.

The pervasiveness of this problem is reflected in the results of a survey of 157 global mayors in 1997 by UNCHS. The survey found that solid waste disposal together with unemployment pose the two largest problems for mayors.

The Future Waste Problem and Needed Strategies

Not surprisingly, with population growth, local governments will have to manage increasing amounts of solid waste. However, the problem does not end there. More of this population growth will take place in urban areas. In year 2025, 45% of Asia's population will reside in urban areas compared to the current 33%. As it is, urban populations already produce 2-3 times more waste than their rural residents.

Furthermore, with economic growth and resulting increases in consumption, the waste produced per capita will continue to increase. A World Bank report (2000) states that the growth of waste per capita in Asian countries is closer to the growth patterns of the US and Canada rather than that of European residents. The annual increase of waste per capita in Asia is currently estimated around 5%. Hence, Indonesia's waste per capita which is currently 0.76 kg/day will become 1.0 kg/day in year 2025 and similarly, Thailand's waste per capita which is currently 1.10 will increase to 1.40 kg/day in the same period. All of the above factors-population growth, urbanization, and a shift to consummeristic societies-will result in cities having to manage waste that is three times the current amount in year 2025. The problem will be particularly worse in large urban centers because more of the population urban growth will take place in large urban centers.

Based on projected waste generation rates and relative capacity to deal with the problem, the World Bank has identified Indonesia, the Philippines, as well as parts of China and India, as the Asian countries that will face the greatest waste management challenge.

Based on the above description, the necessity of integrating waste reduction, reuse, recycling and recovery (also known as the four Rs) into the overall solid waste management system becomes evident. Not only do recycling and composting reduce the amount of waste that needs to be transported and disposed, they support sustainable agriculture by the use a natural soil amendment, reduces the use of virgin raw materials in production, and creates employment.

Governments in Asia have started to recognize the importance of the four Rs and at varying degrees have started to incorporate them into policy and regulations. In the Philippines, an Integrated Ecological Solid Waste Management Act, whose birth was partially triggered by the above waste crisis, seeks to institutionalize reduction, segregation, and recycling procedures. In Thailand, the Policy and Plan for Conservation of National Environmental Quality aims to a recycling rate of 15% in the next 20 years. In Indonesia, similar national policy goals or high level regulations on recycling does not exist. A Ministry of Home Affairs Regulation on Solid Waste Management seems to be the only authoritative document dealing with recycling and composting in Indonesia. It recommends a strategy with a set of targets based on source separation, reduction, reuse, replacing or substitution with less environmentally harmful products, and recycling.

What is also being recognized is, as with other most urban services, that local governments cannot tackle the problem of solid waste management alone and that public-private partnerships are needed. In solid waste management, where capital and technology needs are less intensive than some of the other urban services, such as water supply, or wastewater, NGOs and CBOs (community based organizations) have the potential to play an important role and in fact, have already started playing that role.

The Constraints and Potential of Recycling and Composting

A brief description of the potential of recycling and composting and what has been actually accomplished, will demonstrate to the reader the importance of a successful recycling and composting program, such as that implemented by Wisnu Foundation in Bali. Although the data given below relates to mainly data from Indonesia, the condition in other south east Asian countries does not differ greatly.

While recycling occur quite significantly in an informal fashion by waste pickers, the amount of waste diverted from the waste stream in Indonesia is only in the range of 1-5%, compared to the 20% of waste that is recyclable. This is not due to a lack of demand for recyclables, as there is a large unmet demand for recyclable products, but more due to inefficient collection of recyclables because of lack of separation at source.

The figures for composting are much more discouraging. Fifty percent (50%) of the average urban waste stream in developing countries is easily compostible but very little is composted. In Indonesia, the figure is even higher (70%). Although composting rates on a national level do not exist, city-level data can give a good idea of the level of composting. In Bandung, for example, the amount of the waste stream that is composted is estimated to be only 1%. In Bangalore, India, where composting occurs more than other countries, the composting rate is only 7% while the amount that is compostable is 55%.

Although there are some technological problems, most of the reasons as to why composting has not taken place at a larger scale relate to the compost market itself and the distortions in the market. Some of these include:

• Avoided costs of transportation and disposal not considered. Compost production is usually considered not cost effective because the cost of producing compost is lower than the sale value of the compost. If the savings in transportation and disposal cost were to be taken into account, most compost production would be cost effective. Even if avoided disposal cost were not considered, as many cities do not practice sanitary disposal and have small disposal costs, the inclusion of transportation costs would make composting projects more feasible. Unfortunately most waste agencies do not think in this framework.
• Subsidies in chemical fertilizer makes compost less attractive. Compost has been used a traditional fertilizer for many decades, however starting in the 1970s, the intensive Bimas program promoting and subsidizing chemical fertilizer in rice intensification program drastically reduced the use of compost in Indonesia's agricultural sector.
• Poor marketing skills. Compost producers have poor marketing skills, use poor marketing materials, and usually only target the retail market and do not attempt to gain entry into the larger markets, such as plantations and golf courses.
• Compost quality and quantity not reliable. Due to poor separation, plastics and heavy metals are still found in compost, posing a problem for agriculture users.
• Lack of space. Although not a major factor, lack of space has sometimes been a problem.

The Solid Waste Problem in Bali

Bali, with a land area of 5600 sq km, is one of the main vacation destinations in Asia. About 2 million tourists descend on to Bali each year and stay in the approximately 1,000 hotels in the main tourist destinations. The waste generated from the average hotel room is double the waste produced from a typical household in Bali. In Southern Bali, which constitutes Jimbaran, Nusa Dua, Kuta, and Sanur, 2,400 tonnes of solid waste is produced each day-a fourth of which originates from the tourism industry.

As with many other urban areas in the region, the solid waste agencies in Bali are unable to collect all the waste generated and only collect 60% of the waste. Only one disposal site serves the whole of Southern Bali and its capacity is almost full. The site is operated as an open dump with all the usual environmental and health problems.

Waste generators that produce more than 2 cubic meter per day are explicitly not served by the solid waste agency (Dinas Kebersihan) and are expected to find their own means of transporting their waste. Even while transported by private means, the waste must be disposed at legal dumpsites. Any violations will be subject to a fine of 5 million rupiah (US$ 600).

In reality, this regulation is rarely enforced. The hotels have private waste haulers collect their waste. These haulers, who also happen to be swine farmers, remove the food scrap to use as swine food and dispose the remaining indiscriminately in neighborhoods near the farms, on beaches, along rivers, and in swamps. The situation was so bad in some areas that there were a few instances where guests did not want to pay their bill because of the proximity of the hotel to waste piles. It is interesting to note that private haulers paid the hotels for the waste they took away because of its value as food for the swines.

The Partnership: Rationale and Outcomes

In 1993 eight Indonesian professionals established the Wisnu Foundation to help address some of the environmental problems plaguing the island. Wisnu Foundation had concluded from early on that as 80% of Bali's waste is organic matter, recycling and composting was the key to dealing with Bali's waste problem. Wisnu initially started with a few small-scale household recycling and composting activities.

In 1997, Wisnu Foundation started to notice the problems that were caused by the mounting waste on beaches and rivers and began to trace back the waste to its origins. It discovered that much of this waste came from international five-star chain hotels, such as the Bali Hyatt chain, the Hilton International, and the Sheraton. Wisnu Foundation took photographs of the waste, which often included pieces of broken porcelain (with the hotel's logo) scattered in the waste, and went to visit the hotels with the photographs as evidence. Wisnu Foundation attempted to convince the hotels to take responsibility for their waste and begin a dialog. Initially, the hotels were reluctant, claiming that what happens to the waste after being removed from the hotel grounds was not their responsibility.

The hotels eventually gave in after Wisnu made the argument that the tourism industry depends on the beauty and cleanliness of its environment and that the hotels should embrace a principle of 'polluters-pay" one that is becoming universally accepted. It is worthy to note that from being paid for the waste, the hotels were convinced to pay for the waste that was taken from their hotel.

After bringing all the stakeholders together, the following structure (see chart 1) to a partnership was agreed. The hotels (five originally) would pay 15 thousand rupiah (US$ 1.50) per cubic meter for waste taken from each hotel room to the waste haulers. The waste haulers would then collect the hotels waste that amounted to 15 cubic meters every day and bring it to the project site where the waste is separated into 4 components:

1. food scrap which will be used for swine food;
2. other organics such as garden waste that will be composted returned to the hotels for use as fertilizers in its gardens. Depending on the amount of waste produced, the hotels receive between 2-4 cubic meter per month of compost;
3. recyclables such as aluminum, glass, cartons, and cardboard that will be sorted and sold to middle men (lapak), and
4. residues that will be disposed at a landfill at a fee.

Wisnu chose a simple technology, the bamboo aeration process, for the composting process. This technology had been successfully tried by CPIS (Center for Policy and Implementation Studies) in its pilot projects in Jakarta. In this process, compost is piled around a bamboo triangle tunnel that serves to aerate the compost pile. During the first month, the heap is turned weekly, the moisture content determined and the heap watered when necessary. Remaining non-degradable materials are removed manually while turning the heap. The compost, which is completely decomposed in a month, is left to settle for an additional month. Finally, the finished compost product is sieved and bagged for delivery to the hotels. After the removal of the food scrap, the recyclables, and the compost, the remaining residues was only 25%, or an impressive reduction rate of 75%.

It is also worthy to note that there was no external assistance initially. One of the founders provided a piece of land for free for the separation and composting site. A few other founders provided a small grant for capital for start up costs. In 1998, the United States Asia Environmental Partnership provided a grant through the Asia Foundation for training of the workers and preparation of dissemination materials on the partnership. Recently a soft loan was given by KfW-BPD under the Industrial Efficiency Pollution Control Project to improve the recycling and composting process.

On average the program is able to make a decent return of investment of 5-7%.

To summarize, the partnership that was facilitated by Wisnu Foundation, between the hotels, the waste haulers, and the swine farmers resulted in:

• Beaches and other areas free from mounds of waste
• Environmental pollution of rivers, beaches, groundwater reduced
• Sustainable tourism enhanced
• Employment creation for 64 employees, 4 waste agents (lapak), and 50 swine farmers. Employees are also given accommodation, meals, safety equipment, medical coverage, and yearly bonuses.
• Because recycled materials is used in production, use of virgin raw materials in is reduced and resource depletion is reduced.
• The hotels can use the project to enhance its green image and also have the benefit of free compost. As a result of this activity and other environmental initiatives it implemented, the Intercontinental hotel in Bali won a medal for environmental achievements in the Asia Pacific region.
• The hotels use the data collected on waste generation and composition to make targets for minimization and increased rates of recycling.

Expanding the Partnership

Integrated Hotel Solid Waste Management. The activity started with 5 hotels, grew to 10 hotels, is now planning to expand to 25 hotels. As of 1999, the presence of Wisnu Foundation as a partner in the partnership between the waste haulers, the swine farmers and the hotels was no longer considered necessary. The waste haulers now run the project and have established their own company, CV Jimbaran Lestari. Wisnu Foundation now serves an adviser to this company. The project has gained so much interest from other waste haulers in different parts of the island, that an internship program has been set up. Once the interns have completed the internship with CV Jimbaran Lestari, they hope to set up similar systems in their own districts.

Hotel Eco Rating. Wisnu Foundation and Bappedal (Environmental Impact Control Agency) are assisting the hotels, through a voluntary Eco-Rating program, take environmental responsibility beyond solid waste management into water and energy conservation and minimization of pesticide use. In this voluntary program, hotels rate their performance against a set of benchmarks of water, energy, and pesticide use. Hotels then know their performance vis-à-vis other hotels and benchmarks and set targets for improvements.

Environmental management for small and medium scale enterprises. Building on the experiences of Wisnu Foundation, a program for environmental management of 42 small and medium hotels are being initiated.

Residential solid waste management. Based on the extensive experience in recycling and composting with the hotels, community based composting and recycling projects are planned to take place at the landfill site.

Bali Recycling Forum and Clean Bali campaign. Through the Bali Recycling Forum, local media, airlines, advertising agencies, radio stations, corporations, local NGOs, local governments are getting together to promote a Clean Bali campaign.

Conclusion and Lessons Learned from the Case

• The role of the NGO, Wisnu Foundation, has been crucial in facilitating a unique partnership between the different stakeholders where all parties benefit. Because of bureaucracies, limited staff and limited time, it is difficult for local governments to be able do what Wisnu did namely: study the problem, understand the needs of the different stakeholders, bring the stakeholders together, facilitate the partnership, and run all the different parts of the partnership. Local governments should instead facilitate the NGOs, businesses and community to form partnerships (more on how below).
• Resource recovery can be cost effective, even profitable. Many composting activities do not continue for more than 1-2 years because the economics of the project are not sound. This project shows how a composting and recycling project can be structured to be cost effective. The unique feature of this partnership that differentiates it from many other in the past is the fact the waste generators (i.e., the hotels) pay the full cost for the waste to be collected and processed. Most users fee for solid waste services in Indonesia and other Asian countries are still very far from cost recovery levels. If this experience is to be replicated with waste generating from sources where higher fees can not be applied (such as households), additional support will probably be needed (see below).
• Recycling and composting can achieve significant waste reduction. The high reduction rate was possible because of 'near source' separation and modification in disposal behavior by the hotels. These achievements should be quantified in terms of transportation and disposal cost savings and used to help convince local governments that they should facilitate these partnerships.
• Composting and recycling do not require sophisticated technology or high capital costs. They can be started with small capital investment and low operating expenses.
• Focusing on the waste of large, commercial institutions such as hotels and industries is effective because these institutions are usually more conscious of public image and therefore are more willing to make the necessary changes to protect their economic interest. Hotels and industries also can usually afford to pay the full costs of waste collection and disposal. In terms of waste reduction, the contribution of these institution can be significant. The hotel industry for example, is estimated to contribute 25% of the total waste in Bali. Furthermore, the contribution of commercial waste to the total waste stream is predicted to increase in the future.

Recommendations for Future Environmental Partnerships and Policy Actions

Many emerging markets suffer from the problem of not having the capacity nor information to utilize best practices that have been implemented successfully elsewhere. This is true in the solid waste sector where many local governments could promote successful partnerships or allow NGO's and or the private sector to initiate partnerships, yet most lack the "blueprint" and the basic contractual and regulatory tools to implement such transactions. The following recommendations are gleaned from lessons learned in municipal service delivery and represent a distilled set of actions that local governments should follow to successfully engage the NGO and private sector community.

• Improve dissemination of best practices in the solid waste sector. Ironically, although this experience is being shared at the regional level, there is no mechanism for sharing this experience or other best practices at the national or sub-national level in Indonesia. Unlike the water supply sector, where best practices can be disseminated through the association of water utilities (Perpamsi), there is no similar mechanism to serve information dissemination needs for the 400 some solid waste agencies in the country. In the immediate term, experiences such as this should be documented, compiled, and disseminated through organizations such as the Indonesian Association of Local Governments (e.g., Apkasi).
  In the long term, the establishment of Solid Waste Association such as the SWAPP in the Philippines should be encouraged. This association whose membership would include waste agencies and waste professional would document and disseminate best practices and provide technical advice as needed. The author has met with many solid waste officials who are very interested in resource recovery but have no access to information on how to structure the activity and do not understand the techniques of structuring feasible projects.
  To contrast, discussions and information exchanges, albeit informal, on composting and recycling and waste management issues in general are already taking place within the NGO community in Indonesia. This is a positive development and an indication that if public private partnerships were to be promoted, the interest from within the NGO community is already present.
• Start with Large, Commercial Institutions. Local governments or NGOs in other regions who are looking to adopt the above experience should start with large, commercial institutions such as international hotels, or large national hotels that cater to foreign visitors, international food chains such as McDonalds, and international banks. These institutions are more concerned about image and can afford to pay full cost recovery fees. In fact, the partnership in this case was partially inspired by the partnership between the Environmental Defense Fund and McDonald's corporation.
• Local governments Must Provide Technical and Policy Leadership in Promoting Similar Partnerships One striking observation in this case study is the absence of direct government involvement or support in the project. While that does demonstrate the "art of the possible" and the efficiency of markets absent local government interference, the fact is that most partnerships will not begin or be sustainable without the active participation of local governments as facilitator and contract enforcer/regulator.
  The replication of the Wisnu Foundation experience in Indonesia and elsewhere in Asia, could occur on a much larger scale and rapid pace if local governments were to facilitate partnerships. Facilitation can take many forms, however, at a minimum local governments should be seeking alternative forms of service delivery involving the NGO community and the private sector as a means to transform the status quo, improve environmental management, shift the burden of financing from government to users, and to promote efficiency gains and local participation as much as possible. Such facilitation, depending on the local government can range from activist (requiring by policy or law these types of approaches) or pacifist (at a minimum enabling such partnerships and remaining vigilant on the regulatory enforcement end of the spectrum.
  For management of waste from residential areas where user fees are low and compost markets are not always evident, local government support becomes even more important. Such support is also more important for areas, such as off-Java and Bali, where the capacity of local NGOs and CBOs are weak (capacity of Wisnu Foundation and many NGOs in Bali are relatively strong).
  

In most cases, effective facilitation can take two different, but not mutually exclusive forms, from a "carrot" approach to a "stick" approach. The carrot approach could include:

1. Asset donation
   In this case, local governments provide free land or other assets to soften the costs of NGO or PSP operation of a compost, recycling, or disposal facility. Such grants or donations should only be made if service providers are qualified and comply with all terms of contracts. These government contribution can often represent the 'change agent" to encourage private providers the incentive to risk other inputs such as labor and capital.
2. Soft loans for start-up costs
   Soft loans or grants could be offered (preferably in an environmental revolving fund concept) to qualified NGOs or other providers as a means to lengthen payment terms or encourage other forms of equity or debt contributions to a project. Such loans made in local currency could cover the initial start up costs required when "rolled up" costs are incurred such as the purchase of inputs or the commitment of longer term assets. Soft loans or grants can spread the risk among multiple actors and reduce the likelihood of future government financial participation in the downstream, a worthwhile and responsible financial strategy indeed.
3. Fiscal incentives
   Many local governments in Asia have recently been granted taxing authority and other fiscal responsibilities. Now is a propitious time to examine the range of local fiscal incentive that could be offered to promote greater use of partnerships in environmental and other good governance policy objectives. Fiscal incentives can be applied on qualified projects or firms to reduce their financial burdens substantially. Some of these incentives could include tax relief on capital, income, profits, equipment, or even sales. Environmental credits could also be considered as an offset for those firms that pay taxes or as an incentive to attract greater participation in further attempts to integrate the entire solid waste management system.

• Technological support
  Many local governments have the capacity to offer technological inputs in the form of direct assistance or access to technological approaches to environmentally sound management. Examples used in other countries range from providing technological guidance on "best practices", access to R & D, or financial support for the use of appropriate technology. Solid Waste Management practices that are environmentally and economically sound include inputs for composting, recycling, or collection and disposal.
• Marketing Support
  This case study has cited the difficulty small NGO's and other service providers encounter in identifying markets for environmentally positive approaches to solid waste management like composting and recycling. Local governments are often in stronger positions to link NGO's to end users of compost and other products through pre-existing enterprises or resources such as agricultural marketing boards, small-businesses, and even national programs aimed at supporting farms, plantations, and parks and recreations, all genuine potential users of the solid waste management stream. Local governments can also provide incentives to end users to enter into longer term contractual arrangements to purchase or "take" solid waste outputs.
• Bulk Purchases of Solid Waste Outputs for Public Purposes
  Local governments generally own many assets for public purpose such as parks, beaches, golf courses, schools and universities, and public buildings/landscape cites. Local governments can deepen the financial sustainability of partnerships by purchasing the output of the NGO provider by agreeing to purchase (at reasonable prices) outputs for use in public facilities. This provides yet another market that currently is excluded due to customary practices in governments using "sweetheart" providers rather than publicly procured or approved sources of compost or other ouputs.

Enforcement or regulatory levers or "sticks" can also be applied. Some of these would include:

• Stricter Enforcement of Regulations
  Local governments must accelerate enforcement of illegal dumping fines, which although may result in making waste transport and disposal more expensive, sends other market signals to make recycling and composting more attractive. Stricter enforcement is achieved through the development of greater capacity through training and "contracting out" the contract monitors of all providers in the solid waste management system. The creation of offices of contract compliance has achieved substantial gains in many countries seeking to actually do something about regulatory enforcement.
• Deepening the legislative and regulatory ambit of solid waste management
  Local governments need to develop better legislation and regulations linked to the solid waste management goals of the 4R s(reduce, reuse, recycle, and resource recovery). Solid waste ordinances, laws, and compliance measures governing the now market based systems of solid waste need to be modernized. Integrating solid waste principals and market measures into a cohesive framework of legislation and performance oversight would bring many local governments into step with best practices in municipal management. Emerging markets need not lack the framework and the capacity.
• Implement Sector Reform Comprehensively
  Broader policy reforms are required at the national and local level to generate results from partnerships such as Bali. A small but important set of reforms can be implemented with great effect in efficiency and quality of service. All of the following reforms foster a greater expansion of market principles and environmental stewardship by supporting the expansion of composting and recycling beyond hotel/commercial waste:

  - Public campaigns and regulations should aim to promote separation at source. This reduces the cost of labor and equipment for waste separation and also increases the amount that can be recycled.

  - Institute 'polluters-pay-principle' for all waste producers. Paying for the real costs of waste management will make composting and recycling economically feasible nationwide. Lacking the enforcement capacity is not an excuse for inaction on government mechanisms to influence corporate and public governance.

  - Require environmentally sound disposal methods, such as sanitary landfills and penalize illegal dumping. This will ensure that efficiency in transport, collection, and disposal are more cost-driven and will increase the attractiveness for recycling and composting. Local governments should consider requiring sanitary landfills in most urban areas to promote greater standards, but at the same time, create a market for greater compliance with modern solid waste management efforts.

  - Begin to reduce the subsidies in solid waste by setting users fees and implementing cost recovery. Most governments miss the opportunity to achieve efficient and financial stable solid waste systems by simply raising fees to a reasonable level. Most studies show a preference for solid waste services especially when the costs are distributed fairly between users. Ultimately some degree of cost recovery must be achieved, otherwise local governments and consumers will increasingly suffer as solid waste problems magnify over time.

References

Akatiga, Center for Social Analysis, Market Analysis Compost in West Java and Jabotabek, 1998.

World Bank, What a Waste: Solid Waste Management in Asia, 1999.

World Bank, Composting and Its Applicability in Developing Countries, 1999.

Solid and Liquid Waste Management, Indonesia's Agenda 21, Ministry of Environment and UNDP, 1996.

Asia Foundation, Working Towards Mutual Goals, a talk by Yuyun Ilham at the Asian Perspectives Seminar on "Focus on the Environment: Reshaping NGO-Business Relations", 2000.

Analyzing Urban Solid Waste in Developing Countries: A Perspective on Bangalore, India, Van Beukering, et al, International Institute for Environment and Development, 1999.

Contacts

Yuyun Ilham, former Executive Director of Wisnu Foundation and former project manager of the Hotel Integrated Solid Waste Management Project. She is founder and coordinator of Bali Fokus, an environmental NGO based in Bali. She is also currently serving as technical adviser to CV Jimbaran Lestari and municipal waste management agencies.

Yuyun Ilham Jimbaran Lestari Jl. Celagi Basur No.1, Jimbaran, Kuta-Badung, Bali, Indonesia Tel: 62 361 702620, yuyun@lead.or.id