Companies under investigation in connection with toxic waste mounds

DKI JAKARTA - JAKARTA. The Jakarta Environment Agency is questioning twelve cooking oil producers operating in the city over the discovery of several mounds suspected to be filled with hazardous and toxic (B3) waste in Marunda, North Jakarta.

The head of the agency's supervision and regulation division, Mudarisin, said the companies producing the cooking oil operated in East Jakarta and North Jakarta.

“Yesterday we went there [to question the producers] and today as well. A team from the North Jakarta Environment Agency has investigated,” Mudarisin said on Wednesday as reported by kompas.com.

He said the agency had routinely supervised the waste management of those companies and found that they had enlisted licensed third-party waste managers.

“What is clear now is that they have worked with third-party, licensed waste managers. But we still need to investigate where the waste was dumped,” Mudarisin said.

He said the investigation into the cooking oil producers was carried out at the same time as the investigation into waste transporter companies and the local residents.

Over the past few months, mounds suspected to contain hazardous and toxic waste were found in several spots in Marunda.

The waste was thought to be spent bleaching earth (SBE) materials used in the palm oil industry to filter cooking oil.

The environment agency has cordoned off the mounds at SDN 02 state elementary school, on Jl. Akses Rusun Marunda, at Marunda low-cost apartment cluster A and cluster B with black and yellow tape to prevent access to the mounds.