Legal Reconstruction of Household Waste Management in Indonesia for Regulatory Harmonization and Effectiveness

Abstract

Household waste management in Indonesia faces critical challenges arising from fragmented regulatory mandates across national and regional levels, despite the foundational framework of Law No. 18 of 2008 on Waste Management. Operational inconsistencies between household sorting obligations, municipal services, Extended Producer Responsibility, and supervisory mechanisms hinder effective implementation and circular-economy goals, as evidenced by gaps among Government Regulation No. 81 of 2012, Presidential Regulation No. 109 of 2025, and Ministry of Environment/BPLH Regulation No. 6 of 2026. This study aims to map the current regulatory construction of household waste management, identify structural and normative harmonization deficits, and propose a reconstructed model aligned with constitutional environmental rights and hierarchical legal principles. Employing a normative-prescriptive legal research design with statutory and conceptual approaches, the analysis examines primary legal instruments through systematic and teleological interpretation to reconstruct an auditable chain of obligations. Findings reveal that principal deficits lie not in hierarchical conflicts but in incomplete operational linkages among reduction, handling, producer responsibility, and supervision. The study advances an auditable chain-of-obligations model linking actors, specific duties, supporting services, financing, performance evidence, and corrective mechanisms, offering a practical blueprint for regulatory coherence and enhanced effectiveness in decentralized waste governance.