Balikpapan Restaurants Come Under Environmental Scrutiny
BALIKPAPAN: Environmental authorities in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan, have vowed to be more stringent in enforcing prevailing regulations requiring restaurants to process their waste before disposing of it, as part of the city administration’s wider ongoing green campaign.
Panti Suhartono, the secretary of the Balikpapan Environmental Agency (BLH), said on Sunday that his office was in the process of identifying all the restaurants, eateries and catering firms in the city that did not yet comply with the regulations.
He added that the latter included requirements for large restaurants to have a wastewater treatment facility, and for smaller establishments to have a grease trap to filter fats, oils and greases out of their waste effluent.
“Right now we don’t know how much waste is being generated from the restaurant industry, but what’s certain is that many of the thousands of restaurants in the city don’t have some sort of waste management,” Panti said.
“Often the waste is just channeled into ditches. This is what causes the bad odors that you get in certain areas.”
He said that under the renewed measures to crack down on this form of pollution, any individual or company applying for a restaurant license would have to first build a waste processing facility as a prerequisite for getting the permit.
“We hope to finish identifying all restaurants and catering companies sometime in September,” he said.
“We’ll then keep monitoring them until December, and during that time we will give each violator three chances to comply. If they fail to do so, they face the possibility of having their permits revoked or being closed down altogether.”
The city sanitation agency will also be involved in the program, as part of its own campaign to improve hygiene and sanitation standards at restaurants and eateries.
“From a health perspective, we need to ensure that all kitchens are clean. We will also be checking for halal compliance,” Panti said, referring to an assurance for whether food has been prepared in a suitable manner for Muslims to consume.
- The Jakarta Globe
