Plastic waste in Indonesia: collection, rules and plastic credits

Indonesia is one of the three countries where Reclaimed Earth works with plastic recovery projects, alongside India and the Philippines. It is a country of thousands of islands, fast-growing cities and rivers that carry waste to the sea. That makes collection on land, before plastic reaches a river, especially important.

If you are new to plastic credits, start with What is a plastic credit?.

How much plastic waste Indonesia produces

Estimates differ by source and year.

• The National Plastic Action Partnership (NPAP), a government-led platform with the World Economic Forum, estimated in 2020 that Indonesia generates 6.8 million tonnes of plastic waste a year, growing by about 5% a year. It considered 70% of it, about 4.8 million tonnes, mismanaged.
• The World Bank estimated in 2021 that Indonesia generates about 7.8 million tonnes of plastic waste a year, of which 4.9 million tonnes is not properly managed.

The World Bank also found that rivers carry 83% of the plastic that leaks from land into Indonesia's seas. About 40% of urban residents had no access to basic waste collection, and an estimated 85% of plastic waste in rural areas was not formally collected.

Those gaps are where plastic leaks, and where collection projects try to work.

Play video: Plastic Waste in Indonesia: Collection, Rules and Plastic Credits3 min

National targets and rules

Marine debris action plan. Presidential Regulation 83/2018 set a national action plan on marine debris for 2018 to 2025, with a target to cut marine plastic debris by 70% by 2025. A study published by the SMERU Research Institute reports a 41.68% reduction in marine plastic waste from 2018 to 2024, short of the target. Its authors point to weak coordination between levels of government, weak enforcement and continuing growth in plastic use.

Producer roadmaps. Ministerial Regulation P.75/2019 asks producers, retailers and food service businesses to follow a waste reduction roadmap from 2020 to 2029, with a target of cutting the waste from their products and packaging by 30%. It works through plans that companies submit to the environment ministry. Our EPR guide compares it with rules in the UK, the EU and other Asian countries.

Local bans. Some regions have gone further. Bali's Governor Regulation 97/2018 restricts single-use plastic bags, styrofoam and plastic straws.

The NPAP plan. The 2020 multistakeholder action plan aims to reduce plastic leakage into Indonesia's coastal waters by 70% by 2025 and to reach near-zero plastic pollution by 2040, through less plastic use, redesign, more collection and more recycling.

How collection works on the ground

Public waste services cover only part of the country. Where they stop, collection depends on a mix of community waste banks, informal waste pickers, small aggregators and recyclers, and private and community collection programmes.

Low-value plastic is the hardest part. Bottles and rigid containers have buyers. Sachets, films and multilayer packaging often do not, so nobody collects them unless someone pays for it. Those are the materials most likely to end up in rivers.

Where plastic credits fit

Indonesia's producer roadmap is a planning duty, not a fee-based EPR system like the UK's. That leaves room for voluntary funding to pay for collection in places public services do not reach. Plastic credits are one way to do that.

The same questions apply as anywhere else, and a few matter especially in Indonesia:

• Is the collection additional? Many places already have informal collection of valuable plastic. A credit should fund something that would not happen otherwise, such as low-value plastic or new areas.

• Where does the plastic go? Recycling capacity for some materials is limited, so check whether the plastic was recycled, co-processed or landfilled. Our guide to what happens to collected plastic explains the options.

• Who does the work? Find out how waste pickers and waste bank members are paid and protected. See waste pickers and plastic credits.

• Is it ocean-bound? If a project uses that term, ask which category and where. Ocean-bound plastic explains the definitions.

• Is any of it counted elsewhere? Check that a producer is not also counting the same tonnes towards its own roadmap.

What I look for

In Indonesia, stopping plastic before it reaches the sea means working along rivers and with the communities beside them. I want to follow the plastic past the point of collection and see where it ends up.

Honest Ocean, our partner in Indonesia, links collection and sorting to the production of recycled resin, with traceability of the material. That link is what I look for: it shows the plastic becoming something useful again, not only leaving the riverbank.

How to describe credits from Indonesia

Be specific about place, material and outcome. Name the province or city, the type of plastic, the tonnes, the standard and what happened to the material. Say whether it was recycled or managed in another way. Avoid "saving the ocean" or "removed from the sea" unless the plastic came from the sea. Our guide to buying plastic credits responsibly covers wording.

Frequently asked questions

Published by Reclaimed Earth Limited (Companies House 17392812), which works with plastic recovery projects in India, Indonesia and the Philippines and has a commercial interest in plastic credits. Honest Ocean is a Reclaimed Earth partner. Edited with the Reclaimed Earth editorial team. Last updated 20 October 2026.