Local Disposal and Coastal Community Behavior towards Waste

Management in Ambon City, Indonesia

Irene M. Sohilait

and Maxmilyand Leiwakabessy

Environmental and Disposal Agency of Ambon City, 97126 Ambon, Indonesia

Center for Tropical Horticulture Studies, 16129 Bogor, Indonesia

Keywords: Local Disposal, Ambon City, Coastal Community, Waste Management.

Abstract: Pollution of plastic and other waste substances has become a pivotal issue for the future of sustainable marine

biology ecosystem. It is widely recognized by the global society that most of the marine debris are contributed

by waste production on mainland. Moreover, recent studies have shown that mismanagement of waste and

density of coastal population are two main factors related to the waste input from land to ocean. This study is

aimed to observe the quantity of total waste production in Ambon City and to analyze the behavior of the

society on managing their disposal. Data of waste production was collected from January to July 2018 at

Integrated Waste Management Center (IPST), the final disposal of Ambon City and an online questionnaire

was spread to understand people’s behavior towards waste management. The result showed that during the

first half of the year, average waste produced by Ambonese community were the lowest on February and

highest on April, 157.20 ton and 198.23 ton, respectively. The survey found that most of people in Ambon

(70.90% of respondent) disposed their garbage into temporary dump provided by local government, while

others personally manage the waste through various methods, such as burned, buried in soil, or thrown into

river and coastal area. Furthermore, the result also described that around 95.5% of the respondents claimed to

understand the concept of organic and non-organic waste. However, 13.7% of the people were failed to

distinguish the organic waste from non-organic waste. Therefore, few actions involving community, public

and private sectors need to be conducted in order to improve the waste management in Ambon City, especially

to prevent increasing amount of waste flow from the mainland into ocean.

1 INTRODUCTION

One of the main problems in marine ecosystem is the

increasing of marine debris volume in the ocean. The

harmful impacts of non-degradable marine debris

towards fish and other marine organisms have long

been reported, for instance the disturbance in

development and survival of sea turtles (Carr, 1987).

Moreover, previous researchers have noted hundreds

of debris impacts toward the ecology, with total of

366 cases of perceived impacts due to debris

composed of various materials. Additionally, plastic

was associated with most of the described perceived

impacts (87%), probably because of its persistence in

the environment (Rochman, et.al, 2016). It is also

estimated that plastic, in the form of micro plastic, can

be included into the food chain which is very harmful

for human’s health. Unfortunately, it was recorded

that within 2012 production of global plastic resin

increased up to 620% from 1975 (Nerland, et.al,

2014).

Despite the big impacts of garbage towards

marine ecosystem, most of the debris is actually

generated in the mainland. Around 80% of the marine

debris is originated from the mainland which entering

the marine environment through a land-based

resource. According to Jambeck et al. (2015) 6.4

billion people who live in a coastal countries produce

up to 2.5 billion MT of municipal solid waste in 2010.

Besides, the amount of solid waste entering the ocean

is also affected by the density of coastal population

and mismanagement of the waste (Jambeck et.al,

2015). These facts showed that population of human

being, especially who remains around the coastal

area, play a big role to the flow of garbage from the

mainland to the ocean.

Located at the eastern part of Indonesia, Ambon

is one of the richest reef regions because of its

diversity, complexity and variety of distribution

Sohilait, I. and Leiwakabessy, M.

Local Disposal and Coastal Community Behavior towards Waste Management in Ambon City, Indonesia.

DOI: 10.5220/0008372900160020

In Proceedings of the 6th International Seminar on Ocean and Coastal Engineering, Environmental and Natural Disaster Management (ISOCEEN 2018), pages 16-20

ISBN: 978-989-758-455-8

pattern which is of crucial importance for

development of tropical marine biology. However,

many beautiful and important coastal region and off

shore reef in this area are now threatened by the

growth of human population which leads to more

intensive exploitation (Limmon, 1996). Additionally,

the increasing amount of population around the

coastal area of Ambon Island also affected the

production of waste in this area. Statistic-BPS

institution recorded that there are 411.617 men and

women living in Ambon by 2018, divided into 5 sub-

districts, i.e. Nusaniwe, Sirimau, Ambon Bay,

Baguala, and South Leitimur (BPS, 2018).

Communities in Ambon has a long history of

environmental management. Culturally, Ambonesse

people inherit a specific system of environmental

management based upon the local wisdom of their

ancestor, for instance Kewang. Kewang is a term

describing a person or group of people as an

institution who is in charge for preservation of natural

resources, including prohibition for off-period

harvesting of natural resources (Ajawaila, 2014).

Unfortunately, this local wisdom and community

structure has faded away from its community

throughout the time due to a modernization and

development of governmental organization.

However, this system is currently re-adopted by the

local government in order to regain the local wisdom

and system of environmental preservation, especially

the waste management.

This research was conducted to describe the

amount of debris produced by the local community in

Ambon City and to analyze the potential flow of

waste to enter the ocean from the mainland of

Ambon. In addition, this research was aimed to

understand the local waste management system, in

order to provide a better perspective for the

development of environmental preservation in

Ambon City, especially to prevent the waste to enter

the ocean.

2 METHODS

2.1 Collection of Garbage Production

Data

Data of waste production was collected at Integrated

Waste Management Center (IPST) the final disposal

of Ambon City from January to July 2018. The data

was recorded daily and presented in average ton/day

of waste production every month. Data from IPST

represents the amount of debris that was disposed

within the waste management system provided by the

local government. The amount of debris which was

disposed or managed individually was not recorded

due to its impracticality, but described and analyzed

based on the result of survey of community behavior

towards waste management.

2.2 Survey on Community Behavior

towards Waste Management

An online survey was distributed to understand the

knowledge, attitude and behavior of local

communities of Ambon towards the waste

management. The survey was involving 289

respondents with age range between 17 to over 56

year old who live in five sub-districts of Ambon City,

i.e. Nusaniwe, Sirimau, Ambon Bay, Baguala, and

South Leitimur. Generally, the settlement of

communities in Ambon can was classified into four

different geographic specific area, i.e. hill area, sea

shore, river banks, and densely populated urban area.

The respondents were asked to identify and describe

their settlement and place they live in. Furthermore,

the survey include questions to describe the waste

management facilities, either provided by the

government, individually owned, or non-

governmental facilities initiated by the communities,

located around the settlement. The survey also

evaluated people’s preferences on managing their

garbage to understand the potential scheme of waste

entering the ocean. Data was collected through an

online form then analyzed descriptively.

3 RESULT AND DISCUSSION

3.1 Characteristics of Respondents

3.1.1 Characteristics based on Knowledge

and Disposal Facilities

Ambon is the capital city of Maluku Province,

Indonesia which is densely populated by people from

many different ethnics and backgrounds. Despite the

fact that it is located on a very small island with at the

eastern part of Indonesia, the socio-economy

condition of people in Ambon is very diverse

(Papilaya and Sugihen, 2006; Tahitu, 2017).

Local Disposal and Coastal Community Behavior towards Waste Management in Ambon City, Indonesia

Table 1: Characteristic of Respondent based on the

knowledge and ownership of household disposal.

Respondent

Characteristics

Knowledge about

organic and non-organic garbage

Ownership of

disposal in the

household

Understand

Not

understand

Not sure Yes No

Gender

Male

133

(46.02%)

(0.35%)

(2.08%)

119

(41.18%)

(7.27%)

Female

143

(49.48%)

(1.73%)

(0.35%)

130

(44.98%)

19 (6.57%)

Total

276

(95.5%)

(2.08%)

(2.42%)

249

(86.16%)

(13.84%)

Age

17-35

190

(65.74%)

(1.04%)

(1.73%)

170

(58.82%)

(9.69%)

36-55

(28.03%)

(1.04%)

(0.69%)

(25.95%)

(3.81%)

>56

(1.73%)

0 0

(1.38%)

(0.35%)

Total

276

(95.5%)

(2.08%)

(2.42%)

249

(86.16%)

(13.84%)

Settlement

Location

Hill area

(31.49%)

(0.69%)

(1.04%)

(28.03%)

(5.19%)

Sea shore

(23.88%)

(0.69%)

(0.35%)

(22.49%)

(2.42%)

River Bank

(20.76%)

(0.35%)

(0.69%)

(17.99%)

(3.81%)

Urban area

(19.38%)

(0.35%)

(17.65%)

(2.42%)

Total

276

(95.5%)

(2.08%)

(2.42%)

249

(86.16%)

(13.84%)

Table 1 showed that most of the respondents have

gained basic knowledge on waste management,

especially about the differences between organic and

non-organic waste. In addition, based on gender and

location of household, knowledge about organic and

non-organic garbage was distributed evenly in

Ambon, even though there were some respondents

who have claimed to not understand or not sure about

this concept. Around 95.5% of the respondents

claimed to understand the differences, while 2,42%

other were not sure about it. However, 14.1% of the

respondents who claimed to understand the concept

of organic and non-organic waste were failing to

separate the organic waste from the non-organic

waste within the survey.

Table 2: Presence of Community Disposal around

settlement in Ambon.

Settlement

Location

Distance of nearest disposal to the household

0-250 250-500 m >500 m absence

Hill area

(16.26%)

8 (2.77%)

(5.88%)

(8.3%)

Sea shore

(14.19%)

9 (3.11%)

(2.08%)

(5.54%)

River

Bank

(12.11%)

8 (2.77%)

(3.11%)

(3.81%)

Urban

area

(15.22%)

4 (1.38%)

(1.73%)

Total

167

(57.79%)

(10.03%)

(12.8%)

(19.38%)

Disposal facilities play a big role on supporting

the waste management in many cities. These facilities

can be provided by the government, individually

owned, or non-governmental facilities initiated by the

communities. Based on the data (Table 1), there were

40 respondents (13.84%) who didn’t have their own

trash can or dustbin inside the household.

Furthermore, distance of nearest temporary disposal

place provided by the local government in many

settlements in Ambon is very diverse from each other.

Debris from this disposal will be taken by truck and

delivered to IPST as the final disposal facility. Most

of the temporary disposal located within a close

distance (0-250 m) from the household of the

respondents. However, there are 56 of the

respondents who claimed that there were no

temporary disposal facilities found around their

neighbourhood, in which 27 of them were living

around the sea shore and river banks (Table 2).

3.1.2 Practice of Household Daily Disposal

The disposal practice around the world is very diverse

in each modern and conventional communities. Out

of the most prominent disposal methods around the

world (i.e open dumping, sanitary landfilling,

incineration and composting), open dumping of solid

wastes is practiced extensively in developing

countries because it is cheap and requires no planning

(Sufian and Bala, 2007). Ambon City of Indonesia

also practice the similar waste management system.

Therefore, detail facilities within this system is

required to be managed properly by the community

and government. Previous research in Bangladesh

have shown that burning and burying are to most

common disposing practice for plastic waste within

the community (Sufian and Bala, 2007). On the other

ISOCEEN 2018 - 6th International Seminar on Ocean and Coastal Engineering, Environmental and Natural Disaster Management

hand, solid waste management in other countries, for

instance Singapore and Japan, is a long and complex

system involving many parties (Sutanto, 2002; Ecke

et.al, 2002).

Based on data collected from the survey (Fig. 1),

people in Ambon used various practice to manage

their daily waste, i.e. burning, thrown to river, thrown

to the beach/sea shore, buried, and collected to

temporary disposal. Most of the respondents (65 %)

marked that their daily garbage from the house is

usually posted to the temporary disposal which then

will be delivered to IPST. However, second most

popular practice was burning (25 %) which can

contributes to air pollution with numerous of

hazardous chemical gases produced within the

process. Lastly, there are three other practices, i.e.

thrown to the river, thrown to beach, and burried.

These individual management of personal garbage

could be related to the lack of facilities provided

around the settlement area in Ambon.

This facts about individual practices of waste

management can lead to the miss-management of

debris in Ambon area and polluted the ocean, due to

its crucial location and coastal area relation. For

instance, debris from household which thrown to the

river and beach, without any intervention, will flow

straight entering the ocean. Additionally, Ambon is a

very small island located at an important archipelago

in Indonesia. Thus, waste miss-management will

produce a high risk of harming the marine ecosystem.

Moreover, Ambon is a home for a big population of

mangrove which is the buffer of marine ecosystem,

but currently facing a big threat due to the increasing

of population growth in the Island (Salampessy et.al,

2015).

Figure 1: Disposal Practices by Communities in Ambon.

3.2 Distribution of Waste Production in

Ambon

Final disposal of Ambon City is located at South

Leitimur District, running under the name of Instalasi

Pengelolaan Sampah Terpadu (IPST) or Integrated

Waste Management Center. It is an official

governmental institution to collect and manage the

daily waste produce by the society in Ambon. This

open dumping center has long served the society to

collect the garbage posted at the temporary disposal

unit around the city. However, prior to the garbage

being posted at the temporary disposal unit is out of

the responsibility of IPST. Thus, it was not capable of

calculating and managing the individual managed

garbage in each households.

Based on the data (Figure 2), highest average of

daily garbage collected to IPST within the first half of

2018 was in April, ranged between 167 to 264 ton per

day. Volume of garbage in February 2018 was the

lowest average volume that was recorded at IPST,

range between 146 to 183 ton per day. In Indonesia,

average daily personal waste production was

estimated around 0.5 kg/person/day. For instance,

potency of garbage production in big cities, such as

Bandung and Jakarta were predicted around 1300 ton

and 5000 ton per day, respectively (Sudrajat, 2006).

Thus, production of waste per person in Ambon is

moderately lower than other big cities in Indonesia,

considering the population in Ambon is around

411.617 within 2018. However, the data collected

from IPST was not including the household garbage

which were managed individually by the local people.

Thus, the representative data of waste production in

Ambon is hardly predicted.

Figure 2: Average volume of garbage collected to IPST

Ambon.

3.3 Local Wisdom and Regulation on

Waste Management

Local government of Ambon have several

instruments and regulation about waste management,

two of them are Kewang and Retribution or Permi for

waste management service. Kewang is a term

describing a person or group of people as a social

institution who is in charge for preservation of natural

resources, including prohibition for off-period

Local Disposal and Coastal Community Behavior towards Waste Management in Ambon City, Indonesia

harvesting of natural resources (Ajawaila, 2014).

Historically, Kewang has present in the structure of

Ambonesse community since a long time ago.

Retribution for waste management was necessarily

paid as the part of waste management service and

system in Ambon City.

Figure 3: Awareness of the community towards presence of

Kewang and Permi for waste management.

The result of this research have shown that most

of the respondents are not aware of the presence of

either kewang nor waste management permi. Only

around 13% and 33% of the respondent, respectively,

who are aware of the presence of Kewang and paid

the retribution. Additionally, 36% of the respondents

were not aware of Kewang. Surprisingly, 40% of the

respondents have never paid the retribution and other

27% of the respondent were not aware about this

regulation in Ambon City.

4 CONCLUSION

The society of Ambon managed their daily disposal

using several practices. Even though most of the

respondents were aware and actively practicing good

waste management by posting their garbage to the

temporary disposal unit provided by the government,

several respondents admitted that they also practicing

other disposing practices which are harmful for the

environment. The absence of temporary disposal unit

and other facilities could be related to this waste miss-

management. Moreover, awareness of the society

towards the regulation about waste management in

Ambon City is considerably low.

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ISOCEEN 2018 - 6th International Seminar on Ocean and Coastal Engineering, Environmental and Natural Disaster Management