The government's plan to enforce plastic taxes in the near future is assessed by some circles will not solve plastic waste problems. Instead of reducing plastic waste, excise tax is considered to increase the cost borne by business actors after the government raised the electricity and gas tariff for the industry.
This will undoubtedly weaken the competitiveness of national products amid the economic slowdown and global trade war.
One of the best solutions to overcome plastic waste, as presented by the Research and Development Agency of the Ministry of Public Works and People's Housing (KemenPUPR), at a national seminar entitled "Polymer and Energy Technology Innovation" last week. Balitbang Ministry has managed to process plastic waste into asphalt mixture materials, which can make the asphalt more durable.
According to researchers from the Research and Development Center (Puslitbang) Road and Bridge of the Ministry of PUPR, Edwin Nirwan, to help reduce the problem of plastic waste, the Ministry of PUPR has been doing research related to the use of waste plastic for construction since 2008.
Then at the initiative of the Coordinating Ministry for the Ministry of Marine Affairs, this research continues to be developed and intensified since early 2017.
According to him, the use of plastic waste mixture has been tested on several national roads in Jakarta, Makassar, Bekasi, Denpasar and Tangerang-Merak Toll Road. Based on the results of laboratory tests by Balitbang Ministry of PUPR in 2017, hot asphalt mixtures with additional plastic waste are more resistant to deformation and cracking than the usual hot asphalt mixture.
"The use of plastic waste also does not reduce the quality of the road, it can even add to the road adhesiveness. When laid as hot asphalt, when measured the temperature is 150-180 degrees Celsius, which means the plastic is not degraded and still far from the degradation of waste dumps that is 250-280 degrees Celsius or the temperature where the plastic toxins, "said Edwin in Jakarta, Friday, April 6 2018.
In 2019, the amount of plastic waste in Indonesia is estimated to reach 9.52 million tons or 14 percent of the total waste. With the estimated plastic used 2.5 tons-5 tons per kilometer (km) of road, the plastic waste can contribute to the needs of the road along the 190 thousand km. So you can imagine if the results of this study can be utilized in Indonesia that has a road thousands of kilometers
In the period 2015-2019, the government will build 2,600 km of national roads, 1,000 km of toll roads and road maintenance in all areas, with asphalt needs reaching 1.5 million tons per year. Utilization of waste plastic for asphalt is expected to be the right solution to the problem of waste in Indonesia.
"At the upcoming World Bank and IMF Annual Meetings Forum 2018 we will show the representatives of the countries present in relation to the solution of this plastic waste problem," he said.
The research has received support from the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin), as a more appropriate solution rather than taxes. According to Vice Chairman of Standing Committee of Upstream and Petrochemical Industry of Kadin Indonesia Achmad Widjaja, the utilization of plastics as a mixture of asphalt is the right solution to overcome the problem of plastic waste in Indonesia.
"Used plastics can be mixed materials of various other products, ranging from asphalt mixture materials, construction materials, such as paving, brick for walls, roofs, and so on," he explained.