Aliansi Zero Waste Indonesia (AZWI)

Since 2017, the Indonesian Zero Waste Indonesia Alliance (AZWI) has emerged as a collective movement of non-profit organizations in Indonesia that have experience in solving waste problems, from the advocacy level to the site. Consisting of 10 environmental organizations (YPBB, GIDKP, Nexus3 Foundation, PPLH Bali, ECOTON, ICEL, Zero Waste, Greenpeace Indonesia, Gita Pertiwi and WALHI).  

The Zero Waste Indonesia Alliance (AZWI) invites the public community to support the transformation of sustainable waste management policies through a campaign entitled "Zero Waste by AZWI". Here, the campaign consists of 6 strategic issues, which include:  

1. Upstream advocacy, in which AZWI encourages all producers to change their business models to be environmentally friendly. For example, by redesigning their packaging shapes and materials to be easily recycled and then using those recycled materials in their future product packaging. The strategy also aims to encourage consumers to reduce their plastic consumption by providing detailed information about the waste’s impact on them. Thus, a circular economy will be formed and the production of virgin plastics and even fossil fuels is expected to decrease;  

2. Single-use plastic, in which AZWI launched the "Ban the Big 5" campaign as an effort to reduce the use of 5 plastic products consisting of styrofoam, single-use plastic, plastic straws, sachet packaging, and microbeads. Through this, AZWI supports the Constitutional Court's Decision Number 29 P / HUM / 2019 regarding the ban on the use of single-use plastics and the authority of local governments to implement it;  

3. Zero waste cities, which is a program initiated by AZWI by encouraging the government to create a systematic, measurable, comprehensive, and sustainable waste management system in each city, so that it can then assist households in selecting waste from home. Through this initiative, it is hoped that problems such as the high cost of waste management, the gap between the pile of waste, the lack of infrastructure and the short lifespan of the landfill can be reduced;  

4. Imported waste. AZWI and in particular its 2 members, Nexus 3 Foundation and ECOTON, encourage stakeholders to be more thorough and firmer in maintaining regulations regarding the import of waste as written in PP Permendag 31/2016 concerning Provisions for the Import of Non-B3 Waste and Law Number 32 Year 2009 concerning Protection and Management of the Environment. This is important considering the demand by the industry for valuable and recyclable waste, where similar waste in Indonesia does not yet have stable management; 

5. Pseudo solution. AZWI stated that the application of thermal incinerator, gasification and pyrolysis technology in an effort to reduce the volume of waste in several cities in Indonesia, on the basis of Presidential Regulation No. 18 of 2016 concerning the Acceleration of the Development of Waste-Based Power Plants, is a pseudo-solution that is unrealistic, expensive, and has the potential to fail. Here, further studies are needed related to the potential for waste piles, circulation, and recycling processes of various types of plastic that already exist; and  

6. Justice transition, in which is an alternative problem solving that has been discussed in 5 other strategic issues. This means that the transition in solving problems that occur must be fair and equitable in repairing past losses and creating better waste management in the future.