Indonesian textile and garment manufacturers continue to flout environmental laws and dump hazardous waste into rivers, despite pressure for the industry to be more environmentally friendly, activists and industry leaders have warned.
“Medium and small sized companies, particularly those that serve the domestic market, have no incentives to be environmentally friendly because their margins are small,” says Redma Gita Wirawasta, secretary general of the Indonesian Synthetic Fibre Manufacturers Association (Apsyfi, Asosiasi Produsen Serat dan Benang Filament Indonesia). “So rather than closing down, they just recklessly dump waste into rivers.”
Sustainability is a major concern for export-oriented companies, because buyers in Europe will reject products containing hazardous chemicals, Wirawasta says. “These companies are environmentally sustainable because it’s important for their business sustainability.”
The problem is a long-standing one – indeed, a report released as long ago as 2013 by Greenpeace and the Indonesian environmental group Walhi revealed that materials harmful to human health are being released into the Citarum river in West Java province. The river flows 269 kilometres northwards from it source in Bandung, through 12 districts and cities to the Java Sea, and is an amenity to more than 25 million people who live in its basin and beyond.
The report said canals and sewage in at least eight industrial areas along the Citarum River contained chemicals such as hexavalent chromium and several types of phthalates, a class of widely-used industrial compounds that can be harmful to the hormone and reproductive systems in humans.
The practice is still ongoing in 2018 in West Java province, says Dadan Ramdan, West Java executive director for environmental advocacy organisation Walhi. “The majority of these textile and garment companies have not made efforts to manage their waste according to national regulations,” says Ramdan.
“Many of the 750 companies have no proper waste treatment facilities. Some have but are not operating them properly. They often argue that the handling is in accordance with hazardous waste management standards set by the government.”
In the State Administrative Court in 2016, a judge revoked the waste-disposal licences of three textile companies, PT Kahatex, PT Five Star Textile and PT Insan Sandang Internusa, in Bandung, following a lawsuit from environmental activists who argued that the permits were issued by the government without studying the firms’ waste-disposal practices.
Dumping waste into rivers causing pollution is punishable by up to nine years in prison under the Environmental Protection and Management Law 32/2009.
Anne Patricia Sutanto, vice-president director of PT Pan Brothers, often known by its stock market code of PBRX, one of the country’s largest garment and textile companies, says her company has adopted sustainable production practices for years and recommends others follow her example.
“Our commitment to sustainable cotton includes sourcing recycled and renewable raw materials, whenever available,” says Sutanto.
“Electrical consumption at PBRX has continued to decline, as all machinery uses converters and new machines are more energy efficient. Our factories’ roofs have been designed to absorb heat and reflect more sunlight.”
She says the company has also adopted a paperless office strategy and has started reducing or conserving, recycling, and reusing process water. “Our green concepts make our work environment comfortable and this is conducive to productivity and adds value to our brand,” she says.
Jeanologia, a Spanish company specialising in garment finishing, says it is in a position to help the Indonesian textile industry be more ecologically friendly by serving as a technology partner and is providing a technical team, consulting and training services to the industry in its Bandung hub.
The company says its combination of laser, ozone and e-flow technology can replace traditional processes that produce large amounts of contaminants that are harmful to workers and the environment.
Indonesia currently produces 2% of the world’s jeans and Jeanologia says its One Glass, One Garment process can reduce the use of water in finishing a pair of jeans from 70 litres to just one glass, which would make Indonesia a more sustainable production site.
Source: www.wtin.com