Organic Waste Management at Lake Toba
In November 2021, Afvalzorg, Waste4Change and the Wageningen University & Research in collaboration with the Bakrie University of Indonesia started a project on improving (organic) waste management in the Lake Toba Region in Sumatra, Indonesia. The project is part of the ‘Living Lab concept’ initiated by Nuffic Neso Indonesia to develop Sustainable Tourism in the Lake Toba region. In 2020, King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima visited the region to further promote collaboration of educational and research institutions from both countries together with the local community, entrepreneurs and government. Afvalzorg is honoured to be part of this project and the company looks forward to the first project results which will be presented by the end of 2021.
Series of Webinars on Waste Management starts April 8!
Tomorrow April 8, 2021, the first episode of a series of webinars "Solid Waste Management in Indonesia and the Netherlands" will be aired on zoom. It is directed towards representatives of municipalities and provinces in Indonesia. In this first episode, the history of waste management in Indonesia and the Netherlands will be presented by Mr. Herman Huisman of A4Waste and Mrs. Sri Bebassari of InSWA. The video "Our way with waste" shows the way waste is managed in the city of Rotterdam. This is a joint production of the Indonesian Solid Waste Association and the NL Ecoparks cluster.
NL Ecoparks concept successfully launched in Indonesia.
In week 9-13 March 2020 the PIB companies Afvalzorg, AWECT, HYVA, Leapfrog and MetaSus joined the Dutch Economic Mission to Jakarta and Surabaya. Jessica Reis Leffers of Rijkswaterstaat Leefomgeving provided public sector support. The "circular track", headed by Freek van Eijk of Holland Circular Hotspot, attracted 29 Dutch companies in the waste, water and circular economy sector. The PIB Team launched the Ecoparks concept with a brochure and this dedicated website. Seminars on integrated waste management and well attended matchmaking sessions were followed by a visit to Indonesia's largest landfill Bantar Gebang. AWECT signed an MoU with BinaKarya (persero) on Ecoparks and Afvalzorg signed another MoU with Waste4Change on organic waste processing using black soldier flies. After the visit to the landfill the PIB team met with Mrs. Sigrid Kaag, our Dutch Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation. "Circularity is the way to go in Indonesia!" she told the group. No wonder she was pleased to learn about the Ecoparks approach.
Indonesian journalists visit the Ecopark cluster
An interview with King William-Alexander of the Netherlands in the morning. Then a get-together at the headquarters of the company Afvalzorg with the PIB cluster "Waste and Circular Economy Indonesia - Netherlands". Such was the schedule today of eight Indonesian journalists of reputable publications like the Jakarta Post, Bisnis Indonesia and six other major media. The visit was part of the preparations for the March 9-13 Economic Mission to Jakarta and Surabaya. PIB members Afvalzorg, AWECT, HYVA, Leapfrog and MetaSus will participate. After an explanation of the Ecopark approach and pitches of the PIB companies that were present, the journalists toured the Afvalzorg Ecopark. Looking forward to the reviews in the Indonesian newspapers!
Flying start of PIB 2020
The cluster had a productive annual planning session yesterday at RVO in the city of Utrecht. All companies stressed the importance of a joint proposition as a cluster. We will present this in a brochure and a website. Coming 9-13 March a number of PIB companies will join RVO's economic mission with Ministers Kaag, Van Nieuwenhuizen and Bruins and a guest appearance of our King and Queen. Further 2020 activities will include a pilot project identification mission and an incoming visit of key representatives of the Indonesian hashtag#waste sector in week 16-20 Nov. Albert van Leeuwen of NL Works and Commerijn Plomp of RVO/TIO informed the cluster on financing options and how to deal with the World Bank and ADB. Looks like we're off to a flying start in 2020!
Road Show Waste and Circular Economy in Surabaya
Today we had a large turnout of public and private sector representatives during the Road Show at the Majapahit hotel. Before the break we saw presentations by representatives of the City of Surabaya, the Environmental Agency of East Java and the Indonesian Plastics Recycling Association ADUPI. Mrs. Jessica Reis Leffers of the Dutch Water and Infrastructure Agency painted an overall picture of the Dutch waste management sector. Then the PIB members got the chance to present their companies. This gave rise to many questions. What do you do with hazardous waste? Can you give examples of pollution prevention programs in the Netherlands? And also: can the Netherlands provide support for the Indonesian Waste Bank program? Unfortunately, the latter is not the case, but to get over this little setback the participants were served a delicious Indonesian lunch.
First mission to Indonesia – November 2019
Today the PIB team presents itself with a Holland Pavilion at the 3rd Indonesian Circular Economy Forum in Jakarta. From left to right we see Dennis Zegers of Trisoplast / Multriwell, Jessica Reis Leffers of Rijkswaterstaat, Richard Gronert of Afvalzorg, Bert Keesman of MetaSus, Luuk Rietveld of AWECT, Intan Hadidinata of the Royal Dutch Embassy, Simon Ingleby of Colubris and Ben Chiong of HYVA. If you are interested in meeting the Dutch companies, please come to our booth at ICEF. It's all orange, you can't miss it!
Inspiring brainstorm at the Dutch Embassy in Indonesia
Today the Dutch PIB companies had a great brainstorm session on cooperation opportunities with over ten highly knowledgeable experts from the Indonesian waste sector. "You can present us your technology", President Sri Bebassari of the Indonesia Solid Waste Association said, "but if we want to achieve real change in the Indonesian waste sector we also have to work on policies, financing, awareness building and the informal sector". We couldn't agree more! This is exactly the reason why the Dutch initiative isn't only about private sector business but also about public sector cooperation.