Circular Economy and Fertilizer Subsidy
By: Prof. Bambang PS Brodjonegoro, Ph.D., Professor of the Faculty of Economics and Business, Universitas Indonesia
Half a kilogram of food is thrown away every day by everyone in Indonesia.
KOMPAS – (6/10/2021) The figures obtained from the results of the June 2021 Bappenas study related to food loss and waste, are very concerning. Moreover, currently 45.7 percent of Indonesia’s population is still malnourished, and one in four toddlers are stunted or chronically malnourished. Leftover food that is thrown away should be able to become nutrition for 47 percent of Indonesia’s population.
Dumping leftover food to landfills also brings many negative impacts such as odor pollution and methane gas emissions that accelerate climate change.
Leftover food that is not sorted from upstream will result in fewer and fewer materials that can be recycled, as a result of the difficulty in cleaning recycled materials from organic waste impurities.
Then what is the solution so that leftover food does not fill up the landfill? Because of its high water content it is not suitable to be converted to electricity as feedstock.
The main solution, of course, is to reduce leftover food that goes to the landfill. Changes in people’s behavior need to be carried out, especially the perception of rejection of “ugly food”, namely food that does not meet aesthetic standards but is actually still fit for consumption.
Another effort is to collect food scraps that are still fit for consumption and then distributing them to people in need. A start-up in the UK, OLIO, undertook this initiative and has delivered more than 27 million servings of food over the past five years.
However, despite making efforts to minimize food waste, there must still be portions that cannot be consumed, such as banana peels. Leftover food that cannot be consumed can be converted by composting. The decomposition of food waste in this way produces compost that can be used to fertilize the soil. However, to recycle it completely will take months.
The addition of decomposer organisms into the waste pile can speed up the composting process. The larva of the black soldier fly (BSF) is an organism that can quickly decompose and deplete food waste.
BSF larvae eggs after hatching into larvae are put into piles of food waste and organic waste every day for 18-21 days.
The waste is completely decomposed, leaving only compost, which is very rich in nutrients. The use of BSF decomposers opens up new horizons in organic waste treatment.
Waste into fertilizer
BSF is an organism that in its larval stage requires a large amount of food intake and can completely consume food waste in 2-3 weeks. This process takes place naturally, requires no energy and does not emit a carbon footprint.
In the process of breaking down food waste, BSF larvae produce frass, a liquid rich in nutrients and microbes that are needed to fertilize the soil.
A study from the journal Nature stated that the use of BSF frass as a bio fertilizer can increase the population of bacteria and fungi, reduce soil acidity, and increase macronutrients 2-4 times.
Another study from the journal Frontiers in Plant Science also showed that the combination of BSF bio fertilizer with NPK fertilizer produced 20-48 percent higher vegetables (tomatoes, beans, and kale), when compared to using only NPK fertilizer.
The use of BSF bio fertilizers can also prevent land degradation due to the excessive and continuous use of chemical fertilizers. The area of rice fields in 2019 reached 7.5 million hectares, an increase compared to 2018, which was 7.1 million hectares. However, BPS noted that Indonesia’s rice production fell from 59.2 million tons in 2018 to 54.6 million tons in 2019.
The decline in the productivity of paddy fields is due to two things. First, the soil loses its nutrients due to continuous use. Second, because more and more chemicals are left in the soil, the ability to absorb nutrients needed by plants decreases.
During 2019, domestic consumption of chemical fertilizers reached 10.35 million tons. Of this amount, 75 percent or about 7.7 million tons are subsidized fertilizers. The high fertilizer subsidy certainly puts pressure on the Indonesian state budget. In 2019, the fertilizer subsidy budget reached Rp 34.3 trillion.
This amount is greater than the Rp32.7 trillion budget for social assistance for the Family Hope Program (PKH), which is distributed to around 9.8 million families.
For every hectare of land, conventional fertilization patterns usually require 520 kilograms of chemical fertilizers. If combination fertilization is used, the total fertilizer used is only 250 kilograms of chemical fertilizer and six liters of BSF biological fertilizer. This means that this combination fertilization method has the potential to reduce the amount of fertilizer chemical fertilizers used up to 50 percent or reduce the fiscal pressure of fertilizer subsidies by 30 percent.
Another output of the food waste decomposition process is the BSF larvae themselves. As many as 15 grams of BSF eggs can hatch and grow into 30 kilograms of BSF larvae after about 18 days and in the process can spend about 75 kilograms of food waste per day or about 1,350 kilograms in an 18 day cycle.
BSF larvae have a very high protein content, reaching 43 percent of their dry weight with an amino acid profile equivalent to fishmeal. Fishmeal is one of the main ingredients to make high protein animal feed, which is currently fulfilled through imports from Peru and Chile.
During the January-May 2021 period, to meet domestic demand for animal feed, Indonesia imported fishmeal with a value of US$43.5 million. Dependence on imported fishmeal makes domestic animal feed prices expensive.
Therefore, BSF larvae have the potential as an alternative protein source from fishmeal in Indonesia’s efforts to achieve food independence.
The destruction of organic waste with BSF larvae also brings several other benefits. First, BSF larvae can eliminate waste odors because they can digest organic compounds before they can decompose. Second, BSF larvae produce antimicrobial compounds so that the bio fertilizer produced by BSF does not contain Salmonella and E-coli bacteria.
Third, BSF does not act as a disease vector. In the fly phase, BSF does not have a mouth so it does not eat and bite. Food reserves are obtained while still in the larval stage. When in the fly phase, BSF only mate and lay eggs.
And lastly, the process of decomposing waste with BSF larvae does not produce any waste at all. All the outputs of the process can be used as fertilizer and animal feed, so the process of decomposing waste with BSF can be called the true circular economy.
Not trash
The application of the true circular economy concept using BSF has been running every day on a piece of land overlooking the largest mountain of garbage in Indonesia, the Bantargebang Integrated Waste Processing Site (TPST).
In this 11,000 square meter area, 50 tons of food waste can be destroyed every day using BSF larvae. The liquid fertilizer produced reaches 50,000 liters per day and has been distributed to areas throughout Indonesia to increase the productivity of various types of plants.
The destruction of food waste has the potential to contribute to the DKI Jakarta Provincial Government budget savings of Rp 2.5 billion per year, if it is assumed that the Bantargebang TPST tipping fee is Rp 140,000 per ton.
Moreover, there is no accumulation of organic waste because all incoming food waste can be converted completely. This activity also contributes to the local economy, by creating job opportunities for 175 communities around the Bantargebang TPST.
In 2019, data from the Ministry of Environment and Forestry stated that 57 percent or around 38 million tons of waste generated was food waste. The high amount of food waste opens up countless opportunities if the entire waste can be treated using BSF.
However, in its current application, there are still some challenges in managing waste using BSF larvae. The first challenge lies in the upstream side of waste management, where BSF larvae need food residue and organic waste that has not yet decomposed so that larval development can take place optimally.
In the Government Regulation No. 81 of 2012 Article 19, it is stated that waste transportation is carried out from TPS (Temporary Shelters) to TPA or TPST. This means that organic waste and food leftovers in TPS that are still fresh cannot be transported directly to the waste treatment site with BSF.
If the government can open this method of waste management, it will encourage the formation of an organic waste management ecosystem.
The second challenge lies in the downstream side of waste treatment. Currently, the mindset of many farmers in Indonesia is still fixated on the use of chemical fertilizers. Therefore, collective efforts are needed from all parties, both from the government and social/community organizations, in providing socialization on the importance of using biological fertilizers to maintain soil fertility.
Of course, these efforts must be accompanied by training and assistance on how to use the right combination of biological fertilizers and chemical fertilizers.
Organic waste and food waste have a lot of potential, which is currently not being used optimally. It is time for us to treat leftover food not as waste, but as a resource for creating jobs, leveraging community welfare, driving productivity, and reducing the burden of state finances.
Source: Kompas Daily. Issue: Wednesday, October 6
(am)