Muhammad Hoqqil Fatwa

19522214
Introductory Essay
Bridging Program Assignment

PLASTIC WASTE FOR ENERGY

“The objective of cleaning is not just to clean, but to feel happiness living within that environment”-
Marie Kondo. Based on Marie Kondo’s thoughts about cleaning up the environment, cleaning is not only
to clean but also to feel the happiness of living in that environment, which means society have to renew
our environment that has been polluted by various wastes, one of which is plastic waste, there are more
than 150 million plastic waste that has polluted lands and seas, harms animals and humans themselves .
The environment is a part of the earth that includes living things such as humans, animals and plants
and other objects such as water, air soil or energy sources that are in it and become one. A good
environment can be created if there is a balance between living things with one another and with other
objects (water, soil, air and energy sources), but along with the increasing human population at this time
environmental problems also increase one of them is the problem of plastic waste what humans are
using has now polluted land and oceans, the large amount of plastic waste threatens the lives of animals
and humans themselves. Though plastic can be hundreds of years old in the ocean and break down into
small particles in a much longer time. Plastic will accumulate over and over at sea. For that we must
think of the best solution to overcome this problem of plastic waste. The government should use plastic
waste as a new energy because by using plastic waste into energy has many advantages ranging from
the risk is the lowest compared to other power plants, is very efficient at overcoming environmental
problems, and should also help the country and society finances.

The first advantage of converting plastic waste into energy or called Waste power plant is the risk
by waste power plant is the lowest compared to other power plants. Waste power plant or power
garbage plant or biomass power plant is a thermal power plant with supercritical stream can make the
very low risk, because this power plant only uses plastic waste as the main raw material, different from
other power plants that utilize natural resources that cannot be updated as the main fuel, such as
nuclear power plants that use uranium and plutonium as main fuels, diesel power plants that use
petroleum as the main fuel or electricity generation Gas and steam power that utilizes natural gas as the
main fuel, it all can disturb nature ecosystem live because it uses natural resources as the main resource
that makes these resources become depleted in the future. Not only that the risk posed by other power
plants, such as nuclear power plant which has a very high risk ranging from the impact of radiation in the
are around the power plant and the risk of reactor leakage, The Chernobyl disaster is the worst nuclear
incident in the world in terms of financial loss and loss of life. This disaster killed 31 people and required
500,000 workers for recovery efforts (Hardoko Ervan,2016).
 The next advantage by converting plastic waste into energy is that it can overcome environmental
problems, Such as flooding especially in city are."Of the more than 550 rivers, 52 strategic rivers in
Indonesia are polluted, including the Ciliwung River in DKI Jakarta and the Citarum River in West Java,"
said Forest and Freshwater Director of Indonesia's World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in the discussion
"Together Maintaining Water Sources of Life" in commemoration of World Water Day (Zuraya
Nidia,2019). flooding can occur due to the accumulation of plastic waste in the river area so that it clogs
the waterways and reduces the amount of water that the river holds, especially in city areas. Based on
data from the Ministry of Environment and forestry says that there are around 7,000 tons of plastic
waste dumped in the Ciliwung River every day and polluted the river (Putra Lazuardi,2020). For this
reason, the realization of Waste Power Plant is should be able to prevent flooding in city areas, because
the main source of the flooding problem is the main fuel from the garbage power plant which is plastic
waste itself so that the management of plastic waste is well managed and can create a sense of comfort,
secure, and peace for the society.

The last advantage of converting plastic waste to energy is in the sector of state and society
finances. The impact for society finance is can be to create new jobs related to managing plastic waste
into energy and this is should reduce the number of unemployed people, especially in Indonesia, based
on Central Statistics Agency (BPS) revealed, in 2017 there had been an increase in the number of
unemployed people in Indonesia by 10.000 peoples to 7.04 million people in August 2016 by 7.03 million
peoples (Julianto Pramdia,2017). The advantage for state finances is the reduction in the amount of the
state budget in the sector of oil imports. Because at the moment Indonesia still imports a lot of oil from
foreign countries like Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Angola, Azerbaijan and others. The amount of the budget
spent by the state is certainly very much, Based on data from wordtopexports.com, throughout 2017
the value of Indonesia’s crude oil imports reached 8.2 billion US Dollars or around 117.2 trillion rupiahs
(Arvirianty Anastasia,2018). This figure makes Indonesia the second largest importer of crude oil in
Southeast Asia. That number can be reduced significantly if the main source of electricity generation in
Indonesia is replaced by plastic waste, because the price of plastic waste is very cheap and even free and
available on land and sea in Indonesia which occupies the second plastic waste producer in the world.

So the conclusion is there are more than 150 million plastic waste that pollutes land and sea that
harms animals and humans themselves, for that we must find the best solution to reduce the amount of
plastic waste that pollutes our earth, namely by changing or converting plastic waste into electrical
energy called waste power plant. This method is considered to be very low risk compare the other
power plant. Not only that, this method also has various advantages which is should solve
environmental problems efficiently and should also solve state and society finances.
 References

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William Andrew.

Nugroho, A.S., Rahmad, Chamim, M., Hidayah, F.N. (2018). Plastic waste as an alternative energy, P.2.

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Waste as source of fuel: a review. Renewable and sustainable energy reviews, 50(3), 1167-1170.

Hardoko, E. (2016, April 26). 1986, april 26, chernobyl nuclear reactor explode.

From:https://internasional.kompas.com/read/2016/04/26/12171741/26.April.1986.Reaktor.Nukli
r.Chernobyl.Meledak?page=all

Zuraya, N. (2019, March 23). 82 percents of rivers in Indonesia polluted and critical.

From:https://nasional.republika.co.id/berita/nasional/umum/porsc1383/82-persen-sungai-di-
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Putra, L. (2019, August 25). Residents of Bantaran Ciliwung: naturalization just makes moving floods.

From:https://www.idntimes.com/news/indonesia/lazuardi-putra/warga-bantaran-ciliwung-
naturalisasi-sungai-cuma-bikin-banjir-pindah/full

Julianto, P., A. (2017, November 6). August 2017, unemployment increase to 7.04 million people.

From:https://ekonomi.kompas.com/read/2017/11/06/153940126/agustus-2017-jumlah-
pengangguran-naik-menjadi-704-juta-orang

Arvirianty, A. (2018, September 26). RI’s BBM imports continue increase every year: here are the details.

From:https://www.cnbcindonesia.com/news/20180926190509-4-34909/impor-bbm-ri-terus-
naik-tiap-tahun-ini-rinciannya