Prabowo Pushes 34 Waste-to-Energy Projects to Avert Garbage Crisis

JAKARTA, Investortrust.id — President Prabowo Subianto says the government will immediately start 34 waste-to-energy projects to turn mounting urban garbage into electricity, warning that unmanaged waste risks becoming a national disaster. Speaking during the inauguration of the Refinery Development Master Plan at Pertamina’s Balikpapan refinery, Prabowo said tenders would open soon, with plants expected to be operational within two years to clean cities and generate power.

“This year, in the near term, I have received reports that we will begin 34 waste-to-energy projects, where our waste is converted and cleaned into electricity,” Prabowo said on Monday, Jan 12, 2026 in Balikpapan. He added that the program was essential to free Indonesian cities from garbage accumulation that has long been left unresolved.

“This is very important because we must now clean the waste from our cities,” he said. “The waste has piled up extraordinarily. This is already becoming a disaster.”

The push follows years of stalled progress in solid-waste management, which Prabowo described as a systemic failure. “For more than a decade we have not been able to realize a proper waste project. Now we will start 34 projects. The tenders may open in the coming days, but it will take about two years before they function,” he said.

The waste-to-energy drive is part of a broader national downstreaming, or hilirization, agenda. Earlier this month, State Secretary Prasetyo Hadi said the government was targeting the completion of 18 strategic downstream projects by March 2026, beginning with six groundbreakings in January and continuing through February and March.

One of the priority programs, Prasetyo said, is waste-to-energy development in 34 cities and regencies where daily waste volumes exceed 1,000 tons, making rapid and integrated handling unavoidable. “This requires immediate processing so the waste does not pile up and create many problems,” he said.

A Mounting Waste Burden

Indonesia’s urgency is underpinned by stark numbers. The country generates about 38.4 million tons of municipal solid waste annually, or roughly 105,000 tons per day, according to recent government data. Jakarta alone sends around 8,600 tons per day to its landfills, while Surabaya produces about 1,800 tons daily and Bandung roughly 1,500 tons, straining disposal facilities nationwide. Only about 62 percent of waste is currently managed properly, with the remainder leaking into landfills, waterways, and open dumping sites.

Yet the same waste represents a large, largely untapped energy resource. The Ministry of Energy estimates that urban waste could generate up to 2,066 megawatts of electricity if fully utilized, enough to supply power to millions of households. As a benchmark, a single waste-to-energy plant processing 1,000 tons of garbage per day can typically produce 20 to 25 megawatts, sufficient for about 25,000 homes.

Indonesia has only begun to tap this potential. The country’s first large-scale waste-to-energy facility, the Benowo plant in Surabaya, processes roughly 1,000 to 1,500 tons of waste per day and generates 11 to 12 megawatts of electricity, significantly reducing landfill pressure in the city. A smaller pilot facility at Jakarta’s Bantargebang landfill converts 100 tons per day into about 0.7 megawatt-hours of electricity.

Looking ahead, the government aims to establish waste-to-energy plants in at least 30 cities by 2029, each with around 20 megawatts of capacity, implying roughly 600 megawatts of new power generation. This aligns with a longer-term national target of about 450 megawatts of installed waste-to-energy capacity by 2034. Jakarta has also revived plans for a major incinerator in Sunter, designed to process 2,200 tons per day and produce 35 megawatts.

Regional Race

Indonesia’s challenge mirrors a broader Southeast Asian trend. Malaysia generates about 39,000 tons of waste per day and has begun rolling out waste-to-energy plants of 20 to 25 megawatts each, while Thailand already operates more than 300 megawatts of waste-to-energy capacity and targets up to 900 megawatts by 2037. Vietnam, facing 60,000 to 70,000 tons of daily waste, is rapidly expanding large incineration plants, including a new Hanoi-area facility producing 75 megawatts and a major project near Ho Chi Minh City expected to reach 200 megawatts in later phases.

Against that backdrop, Indonesia’s planned 34 projects mark a significant escalation. Officials argue the program could simultaneously curb environmental risks, reduce landfill dependence, and add a meaningful source of renewable electricity to the national grid, provided projects are delivered on schedule and at scale.