The COVID-19 pandemic has caused most waste recycling activities to be terminated due to several factors, such as concerns about the spread of coronavirus through the collected solid waste. This study investigates the socio-economic impact of the situation of the closed-loop system of solid waste recycling. Several recommendations for tackling this problem are presented in this research. Primary data collection for the waste bank and informal recycling sector was carried out in the eastern part of Surabaya during large-scale social restrictions. In-depth interviews were conducted with waste bank customers, waste bank unit representatives and the informal recycling sector to understand the pandemic’s socio-economic impact on the closed-loop system. Results show that this pandemic has significant impacts on individuals and stakeholders engaged in waste recycling activities. Customers of waste banks, who mostly belong to low-income communities, mentioned that the waste bank closure gave rise to social and economic problems, such as increasing unmanaged solid waste and decreasing income. This result also applied to the informal recycling sector. The government can use the recommendations in this study to generate related policies, such as enforcing the health protocol within solid waste management to keep the recycling system in place and the business alive.

The pre-selection of locally appropriate sanitation technologies and systems is crucial for strategic sanitation planning as any decision is only as good as the options presented. One approach that allows us to systematically consider the local conditions and a diverse range of conventional and novel technologies and systems is the Santiago method. In this paper, we discuss whether the Santiago method can be applied to the case of Latin America and what we would gain from this application. We do so by expanding the Santiago technology library with technologies that have been shown to be promising in metropolitan areas of Latin America, such as condominial sewer, container-based sanitation, and activated sludge. We then apply Santiago to the semi-informal settlement Quebrada Verde (QV) in Lima, Peru. Using Santiago, we were able to generate 265,185 sanitation system options from 42 technologies and 18 appropriateness criteria. A set of 17 appropriate and divers are then selected. The diversity is defined by 17 system templates. To further evaluate these 17 systems, resource recovery and loss potentials are quantified. Higher nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) and total solids recovery are observed for systems that combine urine diversion and biofuel production. The case of QV shows that the Santiago method is applicable in the Latin American context.

Manajemen sampah plastik perkotaan menjadi sorotan beberapa tahun belakang karena jumlah timbulan sampah plastik yang meningkat setiap tahunnya. Begitu juga dengan adanya potensi sampah plastik yang tidak terkelola atau lepas ke lingkungan, seperti terlepas ke badan air dan berakhir di lautan. Kebijakan sampah plastik yang diterapkan pemerintah Indonesia mulai diadopsi beberapa kota di Indonesia, termasuk di Surabaya. Namun, masih terdapat celah pada kebijakan di tingkat nasional dan daerah, seperti belum dikeluarkannya peraturan mengenai larangan penggunaan plastik sekali pakai. Kebijakan manajemen sampah plastik yang ada di Surabaya saat ini masih berupa surat edaran walikota. Studi ini meninjau kondisi eksisting manajemen sampah plastik Kota Surabaya dan mengaitkannya dengan kebijakan manajemen sampah plastik skala nasional yang ada. Dengan menelusuri aliran sampah plastik dari sumbernya hingga berakhir di tempat pemrosesan akhir, kita dapat mengetahui celah terlepasnya sampah plastik ke lingkungan. Jumlah sampah yang masuk ke Benowo setiap harinya pada tahun 2019 mencapai 1689 ton/hari. Sampah plastik Kota Surabaya yang terlepas ke lingkungan diperkirakan mencapai sekitar 94,64 ton/hari atau 44% dari total sampah kota yang tidak terkelola dengan baik setiap harinya. Sampah yang terlepas ke lingkungan bisa karena ditimbun atau dibuang secara ilegal, dibakar, atau bahkan lepas ke badan air. Studi ini membahas hal-hal apa saja yang bisa diperbaiki dari manajemen sampah plastik di Indonesia, khususnya Surabaya. Kombinasi pendekatan bottom-up dan top-down dianggap sebagai salah satu cara untuk mengakselerasi perbaikan manajemen sampah plastik di Surabaya. Pembelajaran dari Kota Surabaya tentu bisa juga diaplikasikan di kota-kota lain di Indonesia yang memiliki profil serupa dengan Surabaya.

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