Indonesia, Sweden sign waste-conversion cooperation agreement
Jakarta, The Gulf The Observer: Indonesian Ministry of Public Works and Public Housing (PUPR) established cooperation in applying technology to convert waste into new and renewable energy with the Swedish government’s Swedfund International AB.
The waste-conversion cooperation agreement document was inked by PUPR Minister Basuki Hadimuljono and the CEO of Swedfund International AB Maria Håkansson at the Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia in Stockholm, Sweden, on Wednesday.
“The PUPR Ministry commits to applying sustainable environment-oriented principles in constructing infrastructures, including by utilizing Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) technology to convert waste into a source of renewable energy,” Minister Hadimuljono noted in a statement received here on Thursday.
Hadimuljono remarked that waste generated in Indonesia could be used as a highly potential source of energy, adding that the country had not capitalized on the potential, as most of its waste simply ended up in landfills.
“Hence, we established this cooperation by taking into account the Swedish government’s reliable expertise, technology, and capability of processing domestic waste and converting it into a source of renewable energy,” he stated.
The cooperation agreement will be implemented by the PUPR Ministry through its Directorate General of Cipta Karya.
Earlier, the PUPR Ministry had formulated a way to use RDF technology to convert waste into a source of renewable energy to substitute the use of coal for operating power plants. The technology is being applied at the Kebun Longok Landfill, Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara.
The application of RDF technology utilizes a land of seven thousand square meters at the eastern complex of the landfill, owned by the Municipal Government of Mataram, with a total processing capacity of 120 tons of waste per day.
By applying RDF, the landfill is projected to be able to produce about 15 tons of converted waste that can be used to operate the Jeranjang Power Plant.
