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Minister of Maritime Affairs, Luhut Binsar Panjaitan held a meeting yesterday to discuss Bali waste management, specifically in the processing and utilizing waste as power generation.

“Yes, it’ll be used for power-generating purposes, first the sanitary landfill (a site where waste is isolated from the environment until it is safe. Ed),” said Panjaitan in the office of The Ministry of Maritime, as quoted by Tempo.

According to Luhut, talks concerning waste as a renewable energy source in Bali are in their final stages, and they will tender the project soon so they can get it up and running.

“It’s almost finished, now the issue is figuring out the amount of trash [that can be processed]. We’re going to tender the project as soon as possible so we can complete the facility by next year,” he added.

IGN Jaya Negara, Denpasar Deputy Mayor, remarked that this project is one of the government’s priorities that needs to be completed before the IMF – World Bank Meeting in October 2018. “The trash problem will be resolved, with the collaboration of the Ministry of Maritime,” he said.

According to Vice Minister, Archandra Tahar, one of the main subjects that was discussed in the meeting was the feasibility study and obtaining land permits that need to be issued by The Ministry of Environment and Forestry.

“Regarding who is going to finance the feasibility study and where the location is—that’s now all been decided,” Tahar said. “The next issue on the table is whether there will be a gate fee (a cost for waste) or not.”

Even though they have several potential investors to manage the waste-to-energy plant, Archandra cannot reveal any names yet, only that the investors are coming from the private sector. “We are still evaluating who might be the best investor. This will be part of the feasibility study.”

The trash pickup points will be centered on four districts in Bali that produces the most waste. Then the load will be taken to Denpasar where the waste processing facility will be built. Archandra added that the facility will have two parts: one area is for processing the waste into energy (sanitary landfill), and the other is to use that energy to produce electricity (waste-to-energy).

“We will build the sanitary landfill first, then the waste-to-energy facility. We plan to start at the end of May,” he said.

Photo: www.titikz.wordpress.com.