Since the beginning of 2019, IKUPI has collaborated with the BINTARI Foundation to carry out monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of the “Improved Recycling and Collaboration of Waste Management – PILAH” program. This program is a collaboration between BINTARI and USAID through the Development Innovation Group (DIG) to increase recycling waste, one of which is through increasing the capacity of stakeholders in recycling activities with accompaniment to 54 waste banks. Waste is one of the triggers for flooding in Semarang City that exacerbated by high rainfall. As an effort to minimize the amount of waste dumped into the sea and flooding due to reduced capacity drainage channel due to waste. This program encourages efforts to manage waste from the household level. More broadly, this program contributes to realizing the resilience of cities against climate change to support the achievement of sustainable development goals (SDGs-13).
The accompaniment for waste banks in Semarang City carried out in 2 stages. In the first phase in 2019, there will be accompaniment in developing 29 waste banks. In the second phase, which has carried out since November 2019, accompanied has also provided to 25 waste banks. Accompaniment carried out is related to improving management, the process of weighing and sorting waste, including efforts to increase service levels or areas as well as business development efforts. Waste bank management representatives receive training related to occupational safety and health management, including efforts to develop economies through business strategies.
The PILAH program has been running since 2018. On 9 December 2019, a team from USAID and DIG visited several waste banks accompanied by representatives from the BINTARI Foundation, IKUPI, and Universitas Diponegoro. The team conducted visits to three waste banks, namely Puspa Nyidra, Polaman Resik Sejahtera, and Lancar Rejeki. Puspa Nyidra waste bank located in Kelurahan Bringin is an example of a waste bank which also receives support from the private sector, namely PT. Indofood. Meanwhile, the Polaman Resik Sejahtera and Lancar Rejeki waste banks located in Mijen District. Until the end of the PILAH program, it hoped that it could contribute to reducing the disposal of plastic waste, especially those that go to the sea.
In the PILAH program, IKUPI and Diponegoro University also collaborate in conducting activities to prepare a Semarang City Waste Management Policy Study. The purpose of drafting a waste management policy study in Semarang City is to identify conditions and opportunities for increasing recycling capacity of non-organic waste in general and plastic waste in particular.