7 DEMANDS FROM ECOTON TO THE PARLIAMENT OF VICTORIA

In the last 3 years, we found that some containers of unsorted waste and scrap paper, that assumed to contain high contamination of plastic waste and mixed municipal wastes, have been sent to Surabaya Port. According to Indonesian Central Statistical Bureau data, there are four types of recovered waste and scrap paper imported from Australia by paper factories as a raw material for paper production, with HS Code shown in Table 1.

Table 1. HSCODE of waste paper imported bt paper factories in East Java Province

HSCODE	Category	Waste Paper Description
47071000	Waste Paper	Recovered (waste and scrap) unbleached kraft paper or paperboard or corrugated paper or paperboard
47072000		Recovered (waste and scrap) other paper or paperboard made mainly of bleached chemical pulp, not coloured in the mass
47073000		Paper or paperboard made mainly of mechanical pulp (for example, newspapers, journals and similar printed matter)
47079000	Unsorted Scrap Paper	Recovered unsorted waste & scrap paper & paperboard for paper making purpose

The graph in Figure 1 shows that

●       Australian export of unsorted scrap paper to East Java Indonesia increased significantly since 2017 with net weight 4.794 tonnes or 47,5 times bigger than 2016 (101 tonnes), and increased to 13.825 tonnes in 2018 or 137 times bigger than 2016

●       the  fraction of unsorted scrap paper in total Australian waste and scrap paper exports to East Java increased significantly from 0,4% in 2016 to 18.7% in 2017, to 36,1% in 2018 and increased amazingly to 171,3% in Januari 2019.

●       before 2019, fraction of unsorted scrap paper exports to East Java was always far less than fraction of waste paper import, but shockingly, data in January 2019 showed that net weight of unsorted scrap paper import was higher than waste paper. The net weight of unsorted scrap paper was 4,3 times bigger than its monthly average in 2018, while the net weight of waste paper import tend to be equal with its monthly average in 2018

●       the data indicates that enormous increase of unsorted scrap paper from Australia has been flooding East Java with plastic waste contaminants that hidden in waste paper bales import during 2018 to early 2019 after China banned plastic waste imports.

 

The regulation of Indonesian Ministry of Trade prohibits import of mix municipal waste to Indonesia, but Indonesian ministry of trade has agreement with Indonesian association of pulp and paper (APKI) to include imported waste paper in the list of green line commodity, and APKI guarantee that the waste paper contamination will be less than 5%, thus the imported waste paper usually could pass customs inspection without physical check. Unfortunately, the impurity level in waste paper import could reach 30% with various plastic waste contaminants such non recyclable flexible packaging of daily consumer goods, municipal waste and hazardous waste, thus it is illegal to enter Indonesia according to the law. About 400 containers of imported contaminated paper and plastic waste has been re-export to some exporting countries by Indonesian Customs, and thousands more are still under detention at port  since July 2019. Indonesian customs and Ministry of Environment now enforce strict inspection on imported waste container coming at the ports.

High contamination of unsorted paper scrap bales imported from Australia has increased plastic waste and scraps produced by paper factories. Some types of plastic waste are recyclable and have economic value but also contain non recyclable residual waste such as multilayer flexible packaging, thus paper factories sell the plastic waste contaminants to the waste collectors in the nearby community. Unfortunately, the plastic waste sorting and recycling process by local waste collectors are done with lack of knowledge and awareness on environmental and health protection. After collecting recyclable and valuable plastic the leftover residual plastic scraps usually being dumped at front yard of houses and along riverbanks such as in Bangun Village Mojokerto, where most people work as plastic waste collectors from several paper factories in East Java

During 2018 to 2019, paper factory  could sell about 20 trucks of plastic waste scraps to the local waste collectors at price 1,6 million rupiah per truck with capacity 7 m3 or 1,2 tonnes, that the factory employees can earn additional income up to 32 million rupiahs per day.  The additional income from selling plastic waste contaminants is seen as economic benefit by waste paper importers, that they do not complain to high contamination level of waste paper bales received from exporter companies. Several companies avoid complicated process of complaining and reexport, because it is time consuming and take additional costs that they do not want to take the risks. This situation also caused by lack of control of Indonesian Customs at the shipping port and lack of control from environmental protection agency to proper waste management at the paper factories.

Most of residual non valuable plastic scraps are dumped or being burned or sell as low grade fuel to tofu home industries. Local waste collectors usually dumped plastic waste scraps on the riverbanks of Brantas, destroying riparian habitat and polluting Brantas River with plastic scraps, toxic ashes, and microplastic particles. Waste paper recycling by paper factories and plastic recycling by small local companies release toxic pollutants and microplastic to Brantas River, the drinking water source for 5 million people in Surabaya, Gresik, and Sidoarjo.

Our recent study found microplastics in 12 effluent of paper factories in Brantas River that use imported paper waste as raw material for paper production. Water samples in Surabaya River, the lower part of Brantas River, contained 19-190 microplastics particle/litre. ECOTON study found 80% of fish sampled in lower Brantas River contain microplastic in the stomach. More over, we also found microplastic particles in faeces of 65 samples of people live in Brantas River Basin, Karawang, Jakarta and Bali. The paper and plastic recycling, plastic scrap dumping and burning are the main source of microplastic pollution in the water, air and soil.

Recently Australia and Indonesia together with other countries joined as signatories of amendment Basel Convention that agreed to include plastic waste in a legally binding framework which will make global trade in plastic waste more transparent and better regulated, whilst also ensuring that its management is safer for human health and the environment. Plastic waste exporters in country of origin have to send notice to imported country prior to sending plastic wastes, and guarantee that the receiving countries have capacities to recycle all exported waste in environmentally sound management.

Through this inquiry, we demand The Parliament of Victoria as civilized developed country who has higher capacity in waste recycling and management than Indonesia, to do actions as follows:

1.      Stop exporting unsorted waste and scrap paper with high contamination of plastic wastes, mixed municipal waste and hazardous waste.

2.      Enforce strict inspection and control on Australian waste exporters in Victoria, so that waste paper export to Indonesia could maintain plastic contamination less than 5%. Weak regulation and poor quality control of waste management in Victoria allows recycling companies in Victoria to ship contaminated and unsorted waste overseas and avoid their obligations to manage waste responsibly and violate community expectations that recyclable waste in fact being recycled.

3.      Enforce agreement of Basel Convention Amendment that include plastic waste in a legally binding framework, that level of plastic waste contamination in waste paper bales and amount of plastic waste export by Australian recycling companies in Victoria should be informed to Indonesia as receiving country prior to shipping in more transparent way and better regulated, to ensure that its management is safer for human health and the environment. Weak regulation of waste management industries in Victoria unfairly places a higher regulatory and environmental burden on importing countries like Indonesia to ensure that waste imports comply with the quality or contamination standards required by Indonesian importers to which Australian exporters have also agreed.

4.      Provide assistance to Indonesian Government to strengthen inspection and control plastic waste contamination in waste paper bales from Australia, to make sure plastic waste export from Australia to in line with agreement in Amendment of Basel Convention Indonesian Ministry of Trade and Customs to review agreement that include waste paper in green line list and to move it into red line list that should pass detail inspection by Customs.

5.      Provide assistance to  Indonesian Government to clean-up plastic scrap pollution in the community villages and riverbanks of Brantas River, monitoring water, soil and air pollution level caused by plastic dumping and burning activities, such as measuring dioxin and furan in the soil, groundwater and chicken egg samples at the dumping sites. Lack of adequate cleaning and sorting obligations for responsible waste management onto poorer communities in export destination countries, like the disadvantaged waste picking communities in Mojokerto who are effectively sorting waste from Victoria, and environmental pollution impacts of plastic recycling, and dumping or burning of residual non recyclable plastic waste.

6.      Provide assistance to paper factories, local waste collectors and recyclers to implement environmentally sound management practices.

7.      Provide access for community participation to monitor plastic waste export from Victoria and provide complain services for paper companies and community groups in Indonesia that impacted by plastic waste trades from Victoria.

We really hope that Parliament of Victoria will take actions to stop illegal export of plastic waste and other municipal wastes as contaminants in waste paper bales export to Indonesia