Govt to require producers to manage plastic waste from packaging

Badung, Bali (ANTARA) - The Ministry of Environment will soon require producers to take responsibility for managing waste generated from their product packaging, as part of national efforts to reduce plastic waste in Indonesia.

Environment Minister Hanif Faisol Nurofiq announced the plan here on Thursday, stating that producers will be summoned to discuss the transition from a voluntary to a mandatory extended producer responsibility (EPR) scheme.

“In developed countries, this is already mandatory. Here, we’re still doing it voluntarily. We want to raise the status to mandatory. It means that if you (as a producer) generate five tons of plastic waste, then you must also recover five tons," he said on the sidelines of the World Environment Day event.

To support this shift, the ministry is revising the Roadmap for Waste Reduction by Producers, as compliance from producers has so far been suboptimal.

This move coincides with the end of the National Policy and Strategy for Household Waste Management and Household-Similar Waste (Jakstranas), outlined in Presidential Regulation Number 97 of 2017, which set a target of 30 percent waste reduction and 70 percent waste management by 2025.

However, waste management performance is still far from target, with only 39.01 percent achieved so far this year.

“We hope to finalize the new national strategic policy plan on waste management by August at the latest,” Nurofiq added.

Data from the ministry’s National Waste Management Information System (SIPSN) shows that 19.74 percent of Indonesia’s total waste — out of 34.2 million tons reported in 2024 across 317 districts/cities — is plastic waste.