Indonesia will hold its impurities threshold for imported paper and plastic scrap at 2pc, the government told the US embassy in Jakarta on Friday.
The new rule is expected to come into effect in September, per the Indonesian government’s letter to the US embassy, the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI) indicated. This announcement is deemed as a big win for US scrap exporters since the Indonesian government had indicated in 2019 that it planned to reduce the threshold to 0.5pc within two years.
Following two years of advocating on behalf of the recycling industry with the Indonesian Government, ISRI has applauded the Ministry of Trade in Indonesia on their affirmation that pre-export inspected recycled commodities (metals and paper, particularly) may be imported into Indonesia with an up to 2pc impurities threshold.
“ISRI is grateful to the Government of Indonesia for working with us to establish a technical regulation that addresses their interests to import only specification-grade raw materials,” said ISRI Vice President of Advocacy Adina Renee Adler. “Our members also received tremendous support from the U.S. embassy throughout the process, and we thank them for their hard work and support.”
“The importation of Non-Hazardous and Toxic Waste (non-B3 waste) for industrial raw materials must be verified in the country of origin prior shipment to Indonesia, as stipulated in the Regulation of Minister of Trade of The Republic of Indonesia Number 83 of 2020,” the letter states. “The Joint Decree which was entered into force since May 27, 2020, regulates that the impurity tolerance limit for paper and plastic non-B3 waste is 2pc maximum. In that relation, the implementation of impurity provisions will be further regulated through the Regulation of the Director-General of Foreign Trade Ministry of Trade of the Republic [of] Indonesia, which currently still [is] under discussion with relevant Ministries.”
ISRI and members participated in a variety of advocacy efforts to solidify the regulation, including trips to Indonesia to brief the government and conduct training on the ISRI specifications with testing, inspection, and certification provider Cotecna.