Windmill for Bantar Gebang

The Netherlands has a reputation of trade and industry with technology innovations. Some Dutch companies are well-known as innovative and knowledge intensive enterprises. In 2007, Philips invested 730 million euros in their research and development, while Akzo Nobel invested 400 million euros. Other companies work with knowledge institutes to develop genuinely new technologies. Some companies even have cooperation agreements with universities for many years. Of course, universities in the Netherlands have good reputations. Delft University of Technology, The University of Leiden, Amsterdam University and Erasmus University of Rotterdam are among the top 50 universities in Europe.

Picture from: http://imageofholland.filternet.nl/Kinderdijk/kinderdijkframe.htm

Windmill for Bantar Gebang? It’s just a figure of speech. Windmill reflects Dutch mastery of sustainable technology. The Dutch have the ability to make a real good use of their resources. Bantar Gebang (Waste Disposal Sites), on the other hand, reflects our need to learn more. We need to learn how to develop the ability to invent and apply sustainable technology along with our environmental awareness. We need to learn more.

Waste management is one field we can learn from the Dutch. In Indonesia, we still use our good old conventional method, “dump and go”, or may be the more sophisticated one, sanitary landfill. This is probably because (we think) we have many free grounds. The Dutch, on the contrary, are forced by their lack of space (and their growing environmental awareness) to invent sustainable technology for their waste management system.

In 2006, the Netherlands recycled nearly 65% of their waste, incinerated most of the remainder to generate electricity, and sent only a small portion of the waste to a waste disposal site. Their step-by-step plan said “ avoid as much as waste as possible, recover the valuable raw materials from any waste that is produced, try to generate energy by incinerating the rest of the waste, and then dump what is left over (in an environmentally friendly way).” Only recently the system—known as ‘Lansink’s Ladder’—was included in The European Framework Directive.

The Netherlands government implemented sets of regulations to make Lansink’s Ladder work well. They introduced a tax on every ton of material dumped. Currently, dumping waste in the Netherlands costs about 35 euros per ton. If the waste is combustible, additional 87 euros in tax must be paid.

Dutch companies develop profitable business by offering better possibilities in managing waste. More improved technology and systems are being developed. Eindhoven-based company Bakker Magnetics is an example.
Working together with Delft University of Technology, they developed the Magnetic Density Separator. They can build great business by recovering valuable materials from stream of waste.

Picture from: Made in Holland, Waste 2008

Dutch knowledge and expertise in waste management are exported worldwide by companies like Royal Haskoning, Tebodin and DHV. How can we import their knowledge and expertise here? Furthermore, how can we learn to develop our own knowledge and expertise? Studying in the Netherlands is a probably a good start.

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