TEMESI Compost
The escalating waste which is polluting Bali’s formerly pristine environment demands a comprehensive waste solution.
A public campaign without a good comprehensive collection system frustrates and demotivates the public as it cannot comply, and a collection system without a good environmentally friendly waste treatment doesn’t help nature. That is why the Gianyar Waste Recovery Project addresses waste processing first. The initial objective of this project was to research and develop an environmentally friendly, safe and economical waste recovery solution.
The project was initiated by the now defunct Rotary Club of Bali Ubud. The implementing partners werethe local NGOs, Yayasan Bali Fokusand Yayasan GelombangUdaraSegar (GUS).
The TEMESI pilot facility was started operating on June, 25th 2004 with a capacity of 4 tons per day. Since then the facility has gained wide local and international attention and has thus raised high expectations. In the pilot facility, the waste recovery procedures were optimized. At the facility’s research center and laboratory, large scale forced aeration composting and alternative organic waste treatments were studied. The pilot and early facility operation received various international academic supports.
By January 2007, all required input had been established to expand the facility’s capacity in a first phase from 4 tons to 25 tons per day or 8,750 tons per year.The land and other services are given free of charge by the Gianyar regency.
During 2008, the TEMESI project was one of the first in Indonesia to register with the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanisms (CDM) and adoptedan ISO 9000 type quality assurance system to improve quality and compliance with the stringent CDM requirements.
In December 2009, the facility reached its final capacity of 50 tons per day or 17,500 tons per year by expanding its production areain a second phase to 4740 square meters. Only this capacity expansion made the project a viable full size model for replications.
In 2008, the United Nation Environment Programme selected the TEMESI projectas Nr. 1 Showcase Project in Asia-Pacific In December 2008, a NGO of the TEMESI community has taken ownership of the project and is now responsible for the entire operation.
The TEMESI waste management concept has large potential to being replicated. Compost restores soil fertility and by composting and recycling,90% of the waste is divertedfrom landfills.
