Kickstarting a Practical Collaboration with Local Stakeholders in Malang District to Implement Refuse-Derived Fuel (RDF)

Renewable Energy and Emission Reduction (REER) is one of the clusters inside RDI that seek after the development and issues of renewable energy, along with climate change mitigation. REER is currently working on a project called Refuse-Derived Fuel to Decarbonize the Electricity Sector and Achieve NDCs Target of Indonesia (RDFact) that initially had been kicked off in July 2022. One of the focuses of RDFact is to increase Indonesian stakeholders' ability to implement Refuse-derived fuel (RDF) as a means to gain cleaner electricity sources and support emission reduction of electricity and industry sectors. The involvement of government sectors and communities is key to the success of the RDFact project. With the RDFact  project in mind, RDI paid a field visit to prospective stakeholders in the project. This visit, our REER research officer (Nadiya Pranindita and Maya Larasati) and outreach officer (Martha Verena) visited Malang District on 24-25 January 2023.

The visit consisted of a two-day agenda where it included several activities, such as formal discussion with the local government representatives and also a visit to  TPST (Tempat Pengolahan Sampah Terpadu) MulyoAgung Bersatu and the Talangagung Kepanjen landfill in Malang Regency.  On the first day, Tuesday, 24 January 2023, the RDI team was invited to the Environmental Service of Malang District to hold a dialogue with Tito Fibrianto P., S.Sos.,M.AP, Head of the Environmental Service of Malang District. On the occasion, our team  introduced the REER cluster details, especially the RDFact project and explored the opportunity for involving the Malang District government to be a part of this project and also the upcoming REER activities.

Our research officers also met Mr. Nugroho when they visited TPST MulyoAgung Bersatu  and observed the community-led Integrated Waste Management Facility. Mr. Nugroho is one of the solopreneurs, who managed the community to run the facility. He shared his insights on how the role of local government, management, and involvement of the community can bring out a greater impact for creating better changes, especially for the environment. On the next day, Wednesday, 25 January 2023, the agenda was to visit landfill and waste management sites.

These sites have their own approaches to waste management. The different approaches depend on the various types of waste they ended up with on the sites. For instance, in Tumpang Lestari, organic waste is processed by maggot farming. On the other hand, the Paras landfill initiated the Petoeng Bamboo as the medium to capture the methane gas. Another landfill our research officers visited was the Talangagung Kepanjen landfill. 

These waste management procedures are in line with RDFact goals to have access to cleaner energy and reduce emissions. Through this visit, we hope that more  landfills could manage their waste with a better approach with the help of the local government and communities in Malang District. We are positive about the potential implementation of RDFact in Malang District and surely looking forward to the practical collaborations in the nearest time.