IPB Professor Warns Danantara Waste-to-Energy Success Depends on Household Sorting

JAKARTA, Investortrust.id — Danantara’s waste-to-energy program draws academic support on Saturday, Dec 20, 2025 in Jakarta as an IPB University professor says the initiative hinges on household-level waste sorting to secure up to 1,000 tons of daily feedstock, a prerequisite that will determine whether the project can deliver clean power and ease Indonesia’s mounting waste crisis.

Arief Sabdo Yuwono, an academic and professor at IPB University, said the use of incinerator technology in the Waste-to-Energy or PLTSa program was technically sound and widely proven abroad. “Japan has long been active in selling this technology. Germany and other European countries have also used incinerators to provide solutions for urban waste,” Arief said in a statement received Friday, Dec 19, 2025.

“Incinerators are indeed an effective way to resolve waste in a relatively short time,” he added.

However, Arief said he had not yet seen detailed execution plans from Danantara, including how the technology would be deployed across sites. He stressed that any waste-to-energy initiative should generate broad public value, not only financial returns.

The urgency of waste management in Indonesia, he said, was reflected in official data. According to the National Waste Management Information System under the Ministry of Environment, Indonesia generated 38.2 million tons of waste in 2024, with only 34.74 percent properly managed.

That challenge is set to grow. In its Strategic Environmental Assessment for the 2025–2045 Long-Term National Development Plan, Bappenas projected national waste volumes would reach 63 million tons in 2025 and rise further to 82.2 million tons by 2045.

Arief said Indonesia already had a strong legal foundation through Law No. 18 of 2008 on Waste Management, but implementation remained heavily skewed toward collection and transportation. “If treatment at the source is combined with the existing legal framework, waste flows from the source to final disposal sites can potentially be reduced by 40 to 60 percent,” he said.

“Right now, everything is collected and transported. If treatment at the source is applied, this can significantly reduce the burden on regional budgets,” Arief added. “Waste can actually be handled locally, from neighborhood units to urban wards.”

He said he had applied such practices in his own community in Bogor, West Java, for more than 15 years, producing compost and experimenting with small-scale energy processing. “I am not just calculating the potential reduction. I have been doing this myself in my own neighborhood,” he said.

Arief said his work had earned a Best Practices Award at a regional ASEAN innovation forum. He said he had also experimented with converting plastic waste into fuel products and was currently assisting a multinational cement company in improving energy efficiency and reducing water content in combustion processes.

“For energy, I have processed plastic into premium kerosene and diesel substitutes,” he said. “Right now, research is ongoing to integrate this into industrial combustion systems.”

Despite the progress, Arief said Indonesia still faced structural hurdles in scaling waste-to-energy projects, particularly in meeting volume requirements. “I hear that this PLTSa project requires up to 1,000 tons of waste per day,” he said.

“To meet that scale, an integrated collection system is needed, and public participation in sorting waste from the source becomes absolutely critical,” he added. “Another major challenge is public perception.”

Danantara Indonesia has said it plans to develop PLTSa projects as part of the country bid to reach its goal of Net Zero Emission by 2060, by engaging third-party partners through open tenders involving domestic and foreign companies. The first phase is expected to cover seven major urban agglomerations.

State utility PLN has confirmed its role as the offtaker for electricity generated by PLTSa facilities. “PLN fully supports the government’s policy to accelerate PLTSa development,” President Director Darmawan Prasodjo said on Thursday, Nov 27, 2025. “Our role is to ensure grid readiness, provide certainty as the offtaker, and open space for cooperation with developers.”

PLN executives said waste-to-energy had been incorporated into the 2025–2034 national power supply plan as part of the bioenergy pillar. “That means PLTSa is fully aligned with the national energy transition roadmap,” said Daniel Tampubolon, Executive Vice President for New and Renewable Energy at PLN.

Danantara officials have described waste-to-energy as a strategic opportunity to address environmental risks while securing sustainable energy supply. “This project is only possible if there is collaboration between the central government, local governments, businesses, and the public,” said Stefanus Ade Hadiwidjaja, Managing Director for Investment at Danantara.

Lawmakers have echoed that view. House Commission XI Chairman Mukhamad Misbakhun said Danantara’s waste-to-energy plan showed how investment could generate both financial returns and public benefits. “If Danantara can execute projects like waste-to-energy consistently, this will strengthen Indonesia’s clean energy foundation,” he said.