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The strong claims of effective waste management by the Western and some developed countries came into question after Indonesia experienced an influx of foreign waste coinciding with China’s decision to close its doors. The waste imported through paper factory operating in several areas including East Java, ultimately affects the lives of residents and their environment. Since then, they have been also dealing with some health issues.
Mounds of plastic waste are clearly visible in the middle of residential areas in Gedangrowo Village, Sidoarjo Regency about 724 kilometers from Jakarta. Some of the trash, has brand labels unfamiliar to Indonesians, an indication that the waste originated overseas. Just a five-minute drive from Gedangrowo, residents of Bangun Village in Mojokerto Regency can be seen sorting garbage next to their homes, while others leave it to dry by the roadside.
About 110 kilometers south of Sidoarjo and Mojokerto, the scenes are similar in Sumberrejo Village, Pagak District, Malang Regency. Typically, the residents use the streets in front of their homes to dry agricultural products, but here, they use their yards to sun-dry chopped-up waste instead.
Sapi’i and Siyah work along the village road, which is now nearly buried in garbage. In their youth, the couple moved Jakarta and worked as street vendors in the traditional market, before returning to their village in 1992. At that time, they saw a new income opportunity in the waste imported by PT Ekamas Fortuna, a paper factory that had just begun operating in their village.
Since then, Sapi’i and Siyah have been making a living on these garbage piles. They buy waste from the factory and sort it by material - paper and plastic. “Each truck usually requires a delivery fee of IDR150,000,” Sapi’i explains.
It takes Sapi’i and Siyah over a month to process a single batch. The drying process is faster when the weather is clear. The sorted paper waste is sold back to the factory, earning them a sorter’s wage of while, the dry plastic is sold to other garbage collectors for IDR250,000 per truckload.
The couple, along with more than 1,500 other families in Pagak District are often called “dirty workers.” For them, the garbage has brought jobs, and they have been making a living this way for over 30 years.
Gedangrowo, Bangun, and Pagak are among several villages in East Java that have become dump sites for imported waste, funneled through local paper factories. The waste is residue from paper recycling processes. It includes a mix of paper pulp, plastic food and beverage packaging, and even electronic waste. Many of the products are recognizable as having been sold in European Union countries, Australia, United Kingdom, and Japan.
In Indonesia, the waste import boom took off in the early 2000s. According to UN Comtrade, Indonesia imported 2,900 tons of plastic waste in 2000. Since then, the volume has continued to rise, peaking in 2022 when the country became the world’s third-largest plastic waste importer, receiving more than 194,000 tons.
After China banned plastic waste imports in 2018, Indonesia experienced a surge in incoming waste over the next seven years. According to the latest 2024 UN Comtrade data, Australia and Japan were among the largest contributors. Between 2023 and 2024, Australia shipped 22,333 tons of plastic waste to Indonesia, an increase of 27.9% from the previous year. Japan followed, exporting an average of 12,460 tons, marking a 14% increase.
Meanwhile, countries in the European Union also played a major role. According to Eurostat, the EU exported a total of 8.5 million tons of waste globally in 2023, a 34% increase from the previous year. This included paper, plastic, and glass waste. Of that total, Indonesia received 17% of the EU’s paper waste exports and 19% of its plastic waste exports.
Indonesia’s Central Statistics Agency also reported that in 2024, the country imported a total of 262,900 tons of plastic waste, valued at approximately US$105 million (around IDR1.7 trillion). That figure represents a 4% increase from 2023, when Indonesia imported 252,300 tons. The Netherlands topped the list as the largest supplier, sending 107,500 tons. Germany and Belgium followed, with 59,100 and 28,800 tons respectively.
A deeper concern arose: developed countries are using developing nations as dumping grounds, avoiding the higher costs of recycling and waste management in their own territories.
Fueling Small Factories
Seven kilometers north of Gedangrowo, thick black smoke billows from the chimney of Gufron’s tofu home industry in Tropodo Village, Sidoarjo Regency. Dozens of workers are busy inside; some washing soybeans, while others are tending the stoves to ensure that the soybeans cook perfectly.
Gufron inherited the trade from his family. He recalls that in the early days, artisans used firewood, rice husks, or LPG to cook soybeans. Most have switched to burning leftover waste nowadays because it is cheaper than using firewood. Since the 1980s, Tropodo has grown into a center of tofu production, home to 51 tofu-making businesses and dozens of tofu-frying operations running daily.
Just like in Tropodo, black smoke rises from limestone-burning sites in Sumberrejo Village, Pagak District, Malang Regency. Every morning, Jumadi, along with Ridwan and Slamet, fires up the kiln. They take shifts guarding the limestone-filled furnace and each earns earn IDR110,000 per day for their work.
The dried plastic waste serves as fuel. Before switching to plastic, the kilns relied on wood. The kiln must stay lit for three full days and nights to ensure the lime is fully processed, during which thick smoke continuously rises.
Satellite imagery observation confirms over ten active burning sites across two villages in Pagak District: Gampingan and Sumberrejo. The areas’ rich limestone deposits, combined with a steady supply of waste from paper mills, has made the lime-burning a key industry.
Threatening Citizens' Health
Many local residents were unaware that the waste they sort and handle may be contaminated with hazardous substances. “Most of them sort through the waste and burn it without any personal protective equipment,” according to Aeshnina Azzahra Aqilani, a teenage environmental activist.
Known as Nina, she is concerned about the residents’ deteriorating health conditions if they continue to ignore the hazards. She had observed that many residents in Tropodo have already begun suffering from respiratory infections. Still, Nina tries to understand the community. “They’re just trying to make a living from the waste around them,” she says.
Air quality in home-industry areas – both the limestone sites in Malang and the tofu producers in Sidoarjo has been measured well beyond safe thresholds. “For vulnerable individuals, airborne particles can trigger acute respiratory conditions,” Rafika Aprilianti, a researcher at Ecological Observation and Wetland Conservation (ECOTON), explained.
Sidoarjo’s Head of Environment and Sanitation Services, Bahrul Aming, confirmed that his office monitored three points within 300 meters of Tropodo’s tofu chimneys. “PM2.5 levels at those locations exceeded national air quality standards and pose a serious threat to public health,” he said.
A 2024 ECOTON study found that recycled high-density polyethylene (HDPE) plastics in East Java contained 346 harmful chemicals. At least 30 of these were found in dangerously high concentrations.
Even the tofu produced in Tropodo Village is not safe. ECOTON’s 2023 study tested 12 tofu samples from different artisans, all of them were contaminated with microplastics. Researchers found 489 fiber particles, 71 filament particles, and additional fragments. These microplastics are believed to originate from the plastic waste burned in furnaces, with the particles carried into food by wind or direct contact.
Another major concern is dioxin. In 2019, ECOTON, along with the Nexus3 Foundation, IPEN, and the Arnika Association, released a joint report showing that dioxin levels in chicken eggs sampled near Bangun and Tropodo were the second highest in Asia, surpassed only by eggs from Bien Hoa, Vietnam, a site heavily contaminated by Agent Orange during the Vietnam War. These dioxin levels can have devastating health consequences such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer.
Polluting the River
East Java is crossed by two of Java’s longest rivers – the Bengawan Solo and the Brantas. The Brantas stretches 320 kilometers from Malang to Surabaya, flowing through at least 10 regencies and four cities. It sustains the daily lives of over 18.9 million people, nearly half of East Java's total population.
In Mojokerto, the Brantas splits into the Surabaya and Porong Rivers, both of which eventually drain into the Madura Strait. Smaller rivers such as the Sadar also start from Brantas. Brantas River is a vital source of fresh water for the communities in Sidoarjo, Mojokerto, Gresik, and Surabaya.
But the river is now under serious threat. Along its banks sit at least 11 paper mills, many of which discharge waste directly into the Brantas and its tributaries. These factories rely heavily on water as a key component in paper production. Yet while they take from the river, they also give back pollution.
A 2023 field study by ECOTON (Ecological Observation and Wetland Conservation) found alarming evidence of contamination. Researchers collected a 250-milliliter water sample from the Porong River, a Brantas tributary, and discovered approximately 1,449 microplastic particles, 15 times higher than normal concentrations found in other rivers.
“These particles vary in size, with some as small as plankton,” says ECOTON researcher Rafika Aprilianti. “That’s what makes them so dangerous – they can be easily ingested by river fish.”
According to Rafika, these implications are alarming. When fish consume microplastics, those particles – often laced with chemicals and toxins can enter the human body when the fish are eaten. These substances can also disrupt hormonal functions, damage tissue, and impair digestion.
Overlapping Rules and Loopholes
Indonesia has not remained passive. The government has issued several strict regulations governing waste imports. Chief among them is a Joint Decree signed by the Ministers of Environment, Trade, and Industry, which limits plastic contamination in imported paper waste to just 2%.
This policy is reinforced by Trade Ministry Regulation No. 31 of 2006 concerning the Import of Non-Hazardous (non-B3) Waste. According to the regulation, eligible waste must not be contaminated with toxic or hazardous materials (B3), and importers must secure an official import permit along with a surveyor’s report as proof of compliance.
However, the implementation is far from ideal. ECOTON reported plastic contamination rates in imported paper waste reaching up to 35%, far exceeding the regulatory limit. The organization holds paper companies accountable for the sharp increase in plastic presence.
These findings were refuted by Liana Bratasida, Chairwoman of the Indonesian Pulp and Paper Association. She argued that Indonesia's waste import practices still fall within acceptable limits as defined by the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI), a U.S.-based private trade association. According to Bratasida, the country faces an annual shortfall of 3.2 to 3.5 million tons of raw material for paper recycling.
On January 1, 2025, the Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forestry announced a bold step: halting plastic scrap imports entirely. Minister Hanif Faisol Nurofiq stated that he had directly consulted President Prabowo Subianto to push forward this policy. Moving forward, importers would only be allowed to bring in plastic waste with direct recommendation from this ministry.
Grassroots pressure is mounting. Last year, Nina sent a formal letter to the Consulates General of Australia and Japan in Surabaya. She urged both governments to take responsibility by stopping waste exports to Indonesia and managing their plastic domestically. “It’s not impossible if I’ll send similar letters to other waste-exporting countries,” she warned.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) has shifted focus toward preventive public behavior. The organization has urged nations to reduce plastic usage, invest in circular economies, and expand recycling initiatives. Based on their studies, WHO classifies microplastics and nanoplastics as urgent health threats, citing risks to hormonal systems, digestion, and long-term wellbeing.
This fundamental issue about how to resist the pressure of foreign imports, remains unresolved.
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Garry Lotulung is a freelance photojournalist and documentary photographer based in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Primagung Dary Riliananda (b. 1996) is a Javanese-born documentary photographer and writer based in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Disclaimer: This published work was prepared with the support of the Heinrich Böll Stiftung. The views and analysis contained in the work are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the foundation. The author is responsible for any liability claims against copyright breaches of graphics, photograph, images, audio, and text used.
