National Waste Awareness Day: Moving Towards Circularity Together With Waste Banks

The National Waste Awareness Day on February 21st is well known as a reminder of the importance of waste management and its impact on the environment and public health. However, many people don’t know that the day was born from a tragedy that cost 157 lives.

To commemorate the 2025 National Waste Awareness Day, Sirsak and IPRO co-hosted "Moving Towards Circularity Together with Waste Banks" on February 27, 2025, with support from KG Semesta and Nestlé Indonesia.

Background: The Leuwigajah Landfill Tragedy

Unlike other rainy seasons, on 21st February 2005, a landfill in West Java finally gave way to the heavy downpour and collapsed. The Leuwigajah landfill is the main dumping ground for the people of Bandung. The accumulation of 2.7 million tons of waste in landfill stretched for 200 meters long, with the stand at the height of 60 meters. The rainy season triggered a rise in methane gas levels, and a single explosion was enough to bring down the entire waste mountain.

Other than deaths and trauma, the tragedy sent many waste into the streets and homes in Bandung. After 59 years, the city once again lived up to its title—Bandung Lautan Api.

The day was established as a reminder for people to take care of waste management and prevent such a disaster from ever happening again.

Greeneration Foundation. (2023, February 16). Leuwigajah Landfill Collapse Pioneering National Waste Care Day. https://greeneration.org/en/publication/green-info/leuwigajah-landfill-collapse-pioneering-hpsn/

Waste Banks as a Solution

The National Waste Awareness day became more prominent now than ever, as Indonesia waste generation reached 69.9 tons in 2023, with only 10% being recycled.

Waste banks serve as a potential solution for this issue, by diverting waste from the landfill and unlocking circularity. The community-led initiative plays a key role in supporting waste reduction, recycling, and basic composting. It also empowers the community to play their part in waste sorting and minimise the environmental and public health impacts of waste.

On the business side, waste banks contribute to producers’ compliance with the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), which holds all producers accountable for their product lifecycle, including proper waste disposal and management. Waste banks integrate used products back into the manufacturing cycle as recycled materials. The collaboration between producers and waste banks not only help producers to meet their recycling targets but also reduces the risk of overcapacity.

National Waste Awareness Day: “Moving Towards Circularity Together with Waste Bank” HPSN: Bergerak Menuju Sirkularitas Bersama Bank Sampah

On this year’s National Waste Awareness Day, Sirsak and Ipro wanted to commemorate the tragedy by facilitating a dialogue on “Moving Towards Circularity Together with Waste Bank”, where participants are invited to collaborate in exploring practical solutions to scale up waste bank functions across Indonesia.

With the expertise of our speakers, combined with the enthusiasm of our participants, this event was able to facilitate meaningful discussions about the role of waste banks in Indonesia and discovered some fascinating insights, outlined below:

Key Takeaways:

1. Waste banks have a vital role in educating the people about waste sorting, preserving the environment, increasing economic value, and strengthening the local community.

2. Waste banks serve as a crucial pillar in implementing the circular economy which will start from the community.

3. Stakeholder collaborations are important to avoid repetition of the same initiatives, as well as leveraging on each stakeholders’ strengths to maximize the impact of each initiative.

Interesting Facts:

1. Waste banks as an effective driver of behavioral change of the society.

2. Majority of waste bank managers are women.

3. Social activities is crucial to ensure the continuity of waste bank operations.

We also identified most common barriers that waste banks are facing:

1. Regeneration of management is one of the barriers in ensuring the continuity of the waste bank.

2. Manual data collection is still the main practice across waste bank operations.

3. Reliability of sellers and waste price still remain inconsistent.

Other discussions about waste banks were enriched with the perspective of our speakers who came from different industries, such as from producers, non-profit organisations, waste bank managers, and the government.

Together, we collaborated to formulate innovative solutions to sustain waste banks’ operations and enhance capabilities in ensuring that their operations could be activated on a national scale

Looking Forward

Waste banks are important not only to collect and sort waste, but also pave the way for the realization of a circular economy. It is important for us to continue exploring innovative solutions to support waste banks. With our continued collaboration and commitment for waste banks can be a driving force for sustainability.