Govt eases regulation on B3 industrial wastes
Wednesday, September 7 2011 - 04:25 AM WIB
In the new regulation, the status of the 14 types of B3 industrial wastes would be changed into ?Special Waste?. They include the industrial waste from the production of steel, other metals, fertilizer and papers as well as those produced from oil and gas exploration and power generation.
Masnellyarti Hilman, a senior official at the office of the state minister for environmental affairs, said that the change of the status was expected to encourage the use of reengineering technology in the recycling of the wastes.
?The treatment of the Special Waste is different because they are less hazardous compared to other B3 industrial wastes,? Masnellyarti said. ?The change in the status to Special Waste is depending on the hazardous chemical contents. For example, not all slag can be changed into Special Waste,? she added.
According to a research, Masnellyarti said, a part of industrial wastes from the production of steel, metals and fertilizer still contained hazardous chemical material. The new regulation would revise the Government Regulation No. 74/2001 on the treatment of B3 and the Government Regulation No. 18 Jo 85/1999 on the processing of B3 wastes.
According to the existing regulations, all B3 industrial wastes should be processed under a tight standard such as through thermal, stabilization and solidification or through chemical and biological process.
The vice chairman of the Indonesian steel association (IISA) Irvan Kamal said that the inclusion of the steel wastes such as slag into B3 category caused a difficulty in the reuse of the waste. ?In developing countries, steel waste such as slag can be used for land reclamation,? he added.
The slag can also be recycled for steel production. PT Krakatau Posco, a joint venture between PT Krakatau Steel and South Korea?s Pohan Iron and Steel Company, for example, plans to use steel waste for the production of the raw material for low-grade steel products. (*)