Hari Srinivas

Concept Note Series E-093. June 2015.

The popular and well-known concept of "3R" refers to reduce, reuse and recycle,
particularly in the context of production and consumption. It calls for an increase in the
ratio of recyclable materials, further reusing of raw materials and manufacturing wastes,
and overall reduction in resources and energy used. These ideas are applied to the entire
lifecycles of products and services - from design and extraction of raw materials to
transport, manufacture, use, dismantling/reuse and disposal. Some achievements and
examples of the 3R concept and waste minimization:

 Recycling (Japan): The glass cullet use rate has been increasing every year since
FY1990 and had already reached 90.3% by FY2003, exceeding the 85%-level that
was expected to be achieved by FY2005 under the Law for Promotion of Effective
Utilization of Resources.
 Reuse (Canada): Mandatory provisions of used oil deposit/collection facilities by
all vendors of lubricants to target used oil produced by different users, has
enabled the return of used oil to the point of purchase for reuse or recovery.
 Minimization and Recovery (Germany): Ordinance on the Avoidance and Recovery
of Packaging Waste, 1998, calls for avoidance or reducing the environmental
impacts of waste arising from packaging. By June 2001, the share of all
packaging waste being recovered was 65 percent by weight, and the share of
recycling was 45 percent by weight.
 Recycling and Composting (USA): In 1999, recycling and composting activities
prevented about 64 million tons of material from ending up in landfills and
incinerators. USA recycles 28 percent of its waste, a rate that has almost doubled
during the past 15 years. 42 percent of paper, 40 percent of plastic soft drink
bottles, 55 percent of aluminum beer and soft drink cans, 57 percent of steel
packaging, and 52 percent of major appliances are now recycled.

Japan's 3R Initiative towards a 'Sound Material Cycle Society'

Japan's impetus for developing a 'Sound Material Flow Society' is derived from three
interrelated causes - [1] the shear volume of wastes being generated, [2] rapid
industrial development, and [3] the limitations placed by Japan's small land mass. This
law, and its constituent individual laws and plans, lie at the core of Japan's 3R Initiative.

Waste4Change Supports 3R
(Reduce-Reuse-Recycle) Green
Concept!
Amanda Bahraini • Posted on 6 May 2019•Last Updated
on 12 September 2023
Basically, the 3R (Reduce-Reuse-Recycle) Concept is a
sequence of steps on how to manage waste properly. The
top priority is Reduce, which is to reduce waste generation,
then Reuse, and then Recycle, to give waste material a
second chance before disposing them to the landfill.

Contoh TPS 3R.

Sumber: setkab.go.id

Understand the 3R Concept (Reduce-Reuse-Recycle)

Along time, the 5R Concept is introduced after the 3R

concept. 2 more stages of waste management process are
added in the 5R Concept: the first being Recover, restoring
materials that can no longer be recycled into energy sources
/ environmentally friendly materials to avoid them from
landfill.

The last stage is Disposal, which is the allocation of garbage

that can no longer be recycled or restored at the landfill.
Reversed triangle 3R (Reduce-Reuse-Recycle) concept
illustrates the amount of waste volume that should be
handled in each sequence.

This means, in essence, most of the production of waste

should be reduced from the beginning. Only when the
production of waste can no longer be avoided, the items are
reused, one of the methods of Reuse is through the
upcycling process or making handicrafts.
When materials can no longer be used again, the waste is
recycled, which is melted, chopped, to be formed into a new
product that might suffer a decrease in quality (See
also: The Complete Recyclables Guide).

The decrease of quality in recycled materials, as well as the

energy and resources needed to recycle waste, are two of
several reasons why recycling is not the first priority of
handling the waste the proper way. The main priority is
always to reduce/prevent the waste generation from the
beginning (reduce).

The Reversed Triangle 5R Waste Management Concept

Waste
Management Hierarchy

According to Law 18 of 2008 concerning Waste

Management, TPA (Tempat Pengelolaan Sampah – landfill) is
a place to safely process and return waste to the
environment in the safest and environmentally friendly way,
both for humans and the environment itself. In fact, most
Indonesians still consider TPA as a final disposal site for all
kind of waste.

Regarding the waste reduction effort that ended in the

TPA/landfill, along time, the existing 3R concept developed
 into the 5R reversed triangle concept (Reduce-Reuse-
Recycle-Recovery-Disposal) with the following details:

1. Reduce – reduce waste generation from the start by

bringing your own shopping bags, using products that can be
used repeatedly, and so on
2. Reuse – reuse materials that can and are safe to be reused,
one of them is by making handicrafts or through the
upcycling process
3. Recycle – recycling waste by melting, chopping to be re-
formed into new products that most likely to experience a
decline in quality
4. Recovery – when it cannot be recycled, then find a way to
produce energy or new material by processing the non-
recyclable waste (residue)
5. Disposal – waste byproducts from the recovery process
which are generally in the form of ash or other waste
material are taken to the landfill to be processed so as not
to damage the environment
Indonesia Landfill Crisis

M
ountains of Trash – Source: Sebarr

Indonesia’s population produces 65 million tons of garbage

every day. Of all the waste produced, 24% polluted the
ecosystem, only 7% were recycled, and 69% of them ended
up in landfills (CNN Indonesia, 2018).

The small amount of recycled waste in Indonesia and the

high amount of waste that has accumulated in the
Indonesian landfill (Final Processing Site) raises many social
and environmental problems, one of which is the predictions
that most of the landfills in Indonesia can no longer operate
due to excess capacity in 2021.

For example, Bantar Gebang Landfill in the Bekasi area,

West Java, which has an area of 110.3 hectares with a
height of 30 meters of waste, allegedly only able to
accommodate 7000-7500 tons of Jakarta residents’ waste
up to a maximum of 3 years.
 Almost the same thing happened in other landfills such as
Suwung landfill in Bali, and Piyungan landfill in Jogjakarta.

Indonesia Clean-From-Waste 2025

Indonesia
Bersih Sampah 2025

Regardless of our dwindling landfill conditions, Indonesia

has also become the world spotlight on our selection as the
second rank country with the most marine waste after China
(a study by Jenna Jambeck, 2016), also ranked as the
second largest food waste producing country after Saudi
Arabia (EIU, 2016).

Given the low level of understanding and application by the

Indonesian people regarding the 3R principles (Reuse,
Reduce, Recycle) and the 2 accompanying processes
namely Recover and Disposal, the Indonesian government
has launched the Indonesia Clean-from-Waste 2025 Program
(Indonesian Presidential Regulation No. 97/2017) which
requires district and regional governments to plan a model
in order to achieve the following 2 goals in 2025:

 reduce 30% of waste from sources

 process and manage at least 70% of the waste so that it
does not accumulate in the landfill

Of course, the community and companies that produce

waste in their business processes are expected to
contribute in adjusting their waste management system to
support the success of the program. (read also: Everything
You Need to Know About Indonesia Clean-from-Waste 2025)

Waste4Change Supports the 3R Concept

Truk Sampah
ZWTL

Waste4Change presents a solution to existing waste

problems by considering the proper implementation of the
concept of reduce-reuse-recycle 3R or the concept of 5R
waste management (Reduce-Reuse-Recycle-Recovery-
Disposal).

Through one of its services, Reduce-Waste to

Landfill, Waste4Change has a role to ensure that the
recycling, recovery, and disposal processes are going well
and properly so that they can really minimize the waste that
ends up in the landfill and also to reduce the amount of
waste that accumulates and becomes pollution to the
environment.
The effort to reuse, especially to reduce remains the two top
priorities of waste management process in Waste4Change
and is part of the Waste4Change’s continuous campaign to
spread the awareness on how to manage your waste wisely.

Waste4Change also supports the integration of a circular

economy to ensure the optimal and efficient utilization of all
materials in the industry, not only to support the
sustainability of environmental conservation programs
globally but also to have a positive impact on the industry
and the economy. (Read Also: Supporting Circular Economy
Through Responsible Waste Management with
Waste4Change)

Read the article in Indonesian version in here.

BY AMANDA BAHRAINI IN INDUSTRY UPDATES

Posted on 6 May 2019•Last Updated on 12 September 2023

The Concept of a Sound Material Cycle Society

(Source: Ministry of Environment, Japan)
A 'Sound Material Cycle Society' is defined as a society in which the consumption of
natural resources is minimized and the environmental load is reduced as much as
possible. The basic principles of the Initiative call for "the realization of a society in which
sustainable development is possible with less environmental impact; prioritization of
handling products, wastes and recyclables; and ensuring appropriate material cycle in
nature."

The Initiative has enabled the refocus of existing environmental laws on material flows,
and enact new ones to fill gaps in existing laws. The basic structure is outlined in the
"Fundamental Law for establishing a Sound Material Cycle Society", and in two general
laws on waste management and recycling - "Waste Management and Public Cleansing
Law" and "Law for the Promotion of Utilization of Recyclable Resources". The rest of the
package of six laws relate to specific issues such as containers and packaging, household
appliances, construction materials, food, vehicles etc., including green purchasing.

Awareness raising among the general public, as well as the private sector has been
strongly built into the initiative, in order to facilitate broader and deeper participation,
particularly at the local level. Political leadership and strong commitment has also been
mobilized to drive the initiative forward - from the prime minister and the national
government ministries, down to prefectural governors and city/town mayors. The
traditional collaborative relationships between industry on one hand and research
institutions/universities on the other, have been further mobilized for Initiative. Several
'Centers of Excellence' have been set up to research on themes drawn from the
Initiative. The Initiative places rightful emphasis on monitoring and evaluation. It
outlines the kinds of indicators to be used and targets to be achieved. The key driver in
the Initiative is 'Material Flow Accounts (MFA)' which looks into resource productivity
(inputs), cyclical use rate (throughputs) and final disposal amount (outputs)

Direction of Future Work

The success of a '3R' initiative will largely depend on the right mix of policies and
programmes implemented at the local level. As the Japanese experience has shown, the
key spheres of action will revolve around governance issues such as laws, legislation,
rules and procedures; education and awareness building issues, targeting stakeholders
in the public and private sectors, but also communities and consumers alike; technology
issues, to ensure that industrial, manufacturing and market activities and technologies
used have a minimum impact on the environment, and produce the least amount of
wastes possible; and financial issues, focusing on subsidies and taxation to facilitate
action in the right direction, and to discourage unsound practices.

Ultimately, the life cycle of a product in itself should guide the action necessary to
development and implement a comprehensive 3R Initiative based on integrated waste
management systems:

 At the production stage, the target stakeholder of businesses should look at 3R

oriented designs for resource-saving, long-life; reuse; recycling; and labeling
materials used.
 Orienting the consumption/use stage of the life cycle a product can be focused on
national and local authorities to take the lead in purchasing environmentally
friendly products and services.
 The collection/recycling stage is critical, asking of consumers to properly
discharge the products they use, or participate in product buy-back programmes;
and of businesses to promote product recycling.
 At the final stage of disposal, businesses and municipalities have the
responsibility to ensure that waste products are properly discharged and/or
incinerated.
Much of this will also depend on developing an integrated framework bringing together
the above points with other issues, including (a) Investment policies and practices, such
as greener procurement, subsidies and eco-taxes, Socially Responsible Investment (SRI)
etc.; (b) Production policies and practices, such as integrated product policy, life cycle
assessment, extended producer responsibility, precautionary principle, polluter pays
principle, eco-efficiency/ clean production, health and safety standards etc.; (c)
Distribution policies and practices, such as right to know, advertising reform, eco-
labeling, packaging, pricing, transportation etc.; and (d) Consumption policies and
practices, such as consumer values, norms and behaviour, and awareness and
education.