Name: JCCI (JICA Clean City Initiative) International Seminar 2025
Start: 2025-02-05T10:00:00+0900

5 February, 2025

JICA Clean City Initiative (JCCI) contributes to building a sustainable society that can realise a healthy environment and protect the health and living environment of people in partner countries by promoting environmental measures; such as waste management and water and air pollution control. The 4th JCCI International Seminar 2025 was held in Tokyo on February 5th 2025, with a focus on circular economy and carbon neutrality as well as collaboration between different stakeholders and further promotion of co-creation.

Miho Hayashi, Programme Manager of IGES-CCET, presented about the pilot activity in Padang (Indonesia) under the session “Actions on plastic under SDGs' 12 Sustainable Consumption and Production”. This pilot activities aim to lessen the amount of waste that is taken to the current landfill site, while reducing plastic waste pollution through collaborative work between the waste banks and other different stakeholders with the integration of digital technology.

Summary

Hayashi began her presentation with the waste issue in Padang city, capital of West Sumatra Province, with a population of about 920,000 people. A survey found that of the 647 tons of daily waste, 74% goes to the landfill site, only 7% is recycled, and 12% is openly burned. The landfill site is nearly full, and people’s habit of waste littering in rivers and drainages worsens flooding and marine pollution. To tackle this, Padang city developed the Integrated Solid Waste Management Action Plan in 2022 with IGES support. The pilot activities which will start in March 2025 focus on two key goals of the Action Plan:

1. Increasing recycling and recovery by 20% (compared to 2021 levels)
2. Strengthening waste management capacity through monitoring and collaboration

Then, she highlighted challenges and current situation of plastic waste recycling in the city.

Waste banks facilitate recycling but face operational difficulties due to lack of practice and awareness of source segregation, low participation in collection of recyclables, and financial struggles. Of 182 registered waste banks, only 82 are operational, with even fewer turning a profit.
Valuable recyclables (PET, HDPE, metals, cardboard, glasses, etc.) are sold to aggregators who transport them to Medan (770 km) or Jakarta (1,300 km) for processing as there is no recycling plant in Padang city. The aggregators need to collect more recyclables to expand their business.
Low-value plastics remain uncollected for recycling but go to the landfill site or simply littered or burned. A cement company called Semen Padang aims to convert them into RDF (Refuse-Derived Fuel) as a coal alternative, but current collection meets only 1% of the 225–250 tons/day target.

Our proposed activities have threefold as shown below. By enhancing waste bank operations, improving coordination, and promoting digital solutions, Padang city is expected to divert waste from the landfill site and reduce plastic waste pollution while increasing recycling activity for circular economy.

1. Application of digital tools (supported by Guriya Luhu)
- Smartphone apps will improve data management, enhance transparency, reduce operational costs, and encourage better waste sorting with incentive-based pricing.
2. Stakeholder coordination (facilitated by Andalas University)
- Strengthening collaboration between the city, waste banks, aggregators, off-taker and the citizens.
3. Education programs through training of trainer approach (facilitated by Andalas University and students)
- Promoting waste segregation and recycling by introducing educational programme to the central waste banks.

After the presentations from the speakers, Ms. Hayashi joined the panel discussion, and explained that this pilot activities were developed based on the Action Plan which had been developed in line with the national waste management strategy; which, in turn, contributes to national SDGs and plastic treaty. She also emphasized the multiple benefits that digital tools can provide in terms of efficiency, transparency, cost-effectiveness, as well as for education purposes. Under this session, speakers presented about the local action with the involvement of private sector in Tonga, Sri Lanka, and Indonesia. Achieving a circular economy requires strong private sector involvement, supported by feasible policies and regulations, their enforcement, and incentives for waste segregation and recycling. When all stakeholders align with a shared and clear vision, led by committed political leadership, meaningful societal change becomes possible.