TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search results
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search resultsBatam to destroy illicit US e-waste, abandons reexport plan
Head of the Batam Environment Agency, Dohar Mangalando Hasibuan, said the decision was taken to ease congestion at Batu Ampar Port.
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
High-risk waste: Officers take photos on Sept. 9, 2025, of six containers carrying electronic waste originating from the United States, allegedly imported by PT Esun in Batam, Riau Islands. (Antara/Environment Ministry/Handout/Antara/Environment Ministry/Handout)
A
uthorities in Batam, Riau Islands, said they will destroy more than 650 containers of illegally imported toxic electronic waste from the United States that had been sitting for months at a local port, abandoning earlier plans to reexport the cargo.
Head of the Batam Environment Agency, Dohar Mangalando Hasibuan, said the decision had been taken to ease congestion at Batu Ampar Port.
“The decision to destroy the imported e-waste domestically was taken following a directive from the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs, which called for the containers to be processed as soon as possible to prevent a backlog at the port,” he said on Monday.
The Batam Free Trade Zone Authority (BP Batam) had earlier said the e-waste containers were occupying most of the port’s 1,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) capacity.
Environmental activists also warned that prolonged storage of hundreds of e-waste containers at the port could lead to corrosion from exposure to seawater and humid coastal air, raising the risk of toxic environmental leaks.
Read also: Corrosion risks feared on 796 US containers of e-waste held in Batam
Dohar said the Batam Environment Agency will begin the disposal process by sorting the contents of the containers to identify materials containing hazardous and toxic substances.
