PLTSa For Bandung, A Solution Or A New Problem

“Waste to energy” technology or we know it in Indonesia as Pembangkit Listrik Tenaga Sampah (PLTSa) converts garbage, sewage, and other waste products to energy. It can produce electricity and fuel cheaply. It has been applied in many countries in the world, such South Korea which is the largest and the biggest, Nederland, USA, Japan, China, Singapore, Malaysia, etc. Then now, it will be built in Bandung. To a certain extent, I believe that PLTSa will give negative effects to Bandung. Although the government said that it is a solution for Bandung’s waste problem, it is not appropriate to apply this technology in Bandung.

It is not appropriate to build PLTSa in Bandung because of some reasons. First, the location of Bandung which is surrounded by mountains and makes the city is like in a bowl, prevents the release of any pollutant gas into the upper atmosphere. This make pollutant gases that are produced by PLTSa will remain in Bandung. Second, we should know what gasses that PLTSa produces are. They are CO₂ and CO which are well-known as greenhouse gasses that cause the global warming, NO_X and SO_X which are known as the cause of acid rain, and the most dangerous gas among the others is dioxine which is able to initiates cancerous development in human body. We can imagine what will happen if these gasses can’t be released from Bandung.

Yet, some people believe that PLTSa will give advantages to Bandung. PLTSa is the solution for Bandung’s problem in waste which the amount of waste products is the most in Indonesia. Beside reducing the amount of waste, PLTSa also produces energy from the waste products. It solves two problems simultaneously : waste and energy crisis.

In conclusion, even though some people still believe that the CO₂, CO, NO_X, and SO_X emission can be reduced by filtering the gasses with a new technology that has been invented recently, making a long and tall chimney so that the emission can be released to upper atmosphere, or dioxine is not a problem as long as the emission is still below the threshold concentration that declared by WHO, it is still a dilemma for applying this technology in Bandung. There are not only advantages, but also risks. Let the researchers decide which is better whether applying or aborting this technology.