Unlocking digital technologies for waste recycling in Industry 4.0 era: A transformation towards a digitalization-based circular economy in Indonesia

Abstract

The overgeneration of non-biodegradable waste in Indonesia requires empty lands for landfilling, which contravenes with the landscape of sustainable cities. As local landfills have become overburdened, the solid waste is disposed of in uncontrolled manners that seriously affect public health and the environment. To address this problem, Indonesian gradually moves towards digitalization for waste recycling. To reflect its novelty, this work investigates how to add economic value to recycled waste using digital technology and how economic incentives can be promoted to avoid generating waste. The roles and implications of digitalization on resource recovery are elaborated from Cleaner Production perspectives. As a driving force of social innovation, it was found that the digital transformation of waste industry encouraged community in Yogyakarta to sell waste online via Rapel app installed in their smartphones. On average, customers sell their waste nearly 15 kg per transaction and earn USD 0.1/kg as a point balance. When their waste ranges from 15 to 20 kg, the sellers get USD 1.4. Recovering polyethylene (PET) bottles via a mixed-recyclables could yield about USD 150–300/Mt, while a bottle-only collection ranges from USD 360 to 590/Mt. As the implications of this study, digitalization has created new jobs (780 waste collectors) in Yogyakarta (@20 persons/subdistrict). Digitalization in waste management also promotes waste avoidance up to 65%. Potential monthly turnover from the waste recycling's transaction through the app is about USD 2,000/waste bank. Overall, the findings imply that the digital transformation in the waste sector not only promotes the resource recovery of non-biodegradable waste for a circular economy, but also enables local community to do online transactions of recycled goods through mobile-based applications. By moving towards digitalization, it is projected that the country's waste recycling industry would create over 120,000 new jobs and absorb about 3.3 million informal workers such as waste collectors.