Undang-Undang 18/2008 (Undang-Undang Republik Indonesia Nomor 18 Tahun 2008 tentang Pengelolaan Sampah) is the Indonesian statute on the management of solid waste. Passed by the House of Representatives with the President, it was signed and promulgated on 7 May 2008 and took effect on promulgation.^[1][2] It is the parent law of solid waste management law in Indonesia: it defines waste and its categories, divides authority between the central, provincial and district governments, sets out the rights and duties of residents, producers and area managers, and establishes licensing, compensation, dispute settlement, and administrative and criminal sanctions.

The law organises waste management into two activities, reduction (pengurangan) and handling (penanganan), and applies to household waste, waste similar to household waste, and "specific" waste that needs special management.^[3] It places a duty on producers to manage packaging and goods that do not decompose naturally, the statutory basis of extended producer responsibility in Indonesia, and it prohibits the import of waste and open dumping at final disposal sites.^[4][5]

Most operational detail is delegated. The law names government regulations, ministerial regulations and regional regulations for its implementation, and its principal implementing instruments include PP 81/2012 on household waste and a 2020 government regulation on specific waste.^[6][7] CRPG's regulatory tracker published three analyses of the law's definitions, rights and obligations, and sanctions in December 2025.^[8][9][10]

¶ Background

The considerations (Menimbang) of the law state that population growth and changing consumption had increased the volume and variety of waste, that waste had not been managed with environmentally sound methods, and that waste management required legal certainty and clear responsibilities for the central and regional governments, the public and business. The law cites Pasal 28H ayat (1) of the 1945 Constitution, the right to a good and healthy environment, and Pasal 33 ayat (3) and (4) among its constitutional bases.^[11]

The general elucidation (Penjelasan Umum) describes the approach the law replaced: waste was collected, transported and dumped at a final disposal site, an "end-of-pipe" approach that the elucidation links to methane emissions from large dumps. It describes the new approach as treating waste as a resource with economic value, to be managed "from upstream to downstream" through reduction and handling. It also reads the constitutional right to a healthy environment as making the government responsible for waste management as a public service, while allowing it to work with business entities and community organisations.^[12]

¶ Scope and definitions

Waste (sampah) is defined as the residue of daily human activity or natural processes in solid form. The law manages three categories: household waste, which comes from daily household activity and excludes faeces and specific waste; waste similar to household waste, which comes from commercial, industrial and special areas and from social, public and other facilities; and specific waste (sampah spesifik), defined by its nature, concentration or volume. Specific waste includes waste containing hazardous and toxic substances (B3) or B3 waste, disaster waste, demolition debris, waste that cannot yet be processed with available technology, and waste arising irregularly.^[3:1] The exclusion of faeces leaves human excreta to the separate regime described at wastewater and sanitation regulation in Indonesia.

The law defines three kinds of site. A temporary collection site (tempat penampungan sementara, TPS) holds waste before it is taken to recycling, processing or an integrated site; an integrated waste processing site (tempat pengolahan sampah terpadu, TPST) is where collection, sorting, reuse, recycling, processing and final processing take place; and a final processing site (tempat pemrosesan akhir, TPA) is where waste is processed and returned to the environment safely. These facilities are described at waste processing facilities in Indonesia.^[3:2]

¶ Principles and authority

Waste management rests on nine principles, among them responsibility, sustainability, justice, safety and economic value, and has two aims: improving public health and environmental quality, and turning waste into a resource.^[13] The central government sets national policy and strategy and the norms, standards, procedures and criteria, and supervises regional governments. Provinces set provincial policy and facilitate cooperation between districts. District and city governments operate waste management at their level, supervise other operators, fix the locations of TPS, TPST and TPA sites as part of their spatial plans, and must monitor closed open-dump sites every six months for twenty years. In the special capital region of Jakarta these district functions belong to the provincial government.^[14]

¶ Rights and obligations

Every person has the right to good and environmentally sound waste services, to take part in decision-making and supervision, to accurate and timely information, to protection and compensation for the negative effects of final processing sites, and to guidance.^[4:1] Every person managing household or similar waste must reduce and handle it in an environmentally sound way, under regional regulations. Managers of residential, commercial, industrial and special areas and of public, social and other facilities must provide waste-sorting facilities.^[4:2]

Two provisions address producers. Every producer must place a label or mark on its packaging or products relating to waste reduction and handling (Pasal 14), and producers must manage the packaging and goods they produce that cannot, or can only with difficulty, be decomposed by natural processes (Pasal 15). The elucidation of Pasal 15 explains that managing packaging means taking it back for recycling or reuse. Both duties are left to a government regulation.^[4:3]

¶ Reduction and handling

Reduction covers limiting waste generation, recycling and reuse. The central and regional governments must set phased reduction targets, facilitate environmentally friendly technology and labelling, and support reuse, recycling and the marketing of recycled products; business actors must use production materials that generate as little waste as possible or can be reused, recycled or decomposed. The government is to give incentives to those who reduce waste and disincentives to those who do not.^[15] Handling consists of five stages: sorting, collection, transport, processing and final processing.^[15:1] The management of specific waste is the responsibility of the central government, under a government regulation; that regulation was issued as PP 27/2020 on specific waste, which is discussed at hazardous waste regulation in Indonesia.^[16][17]

¶ Licensing, financing and compensation

Anyone running a waste management business needs a licence from the regional head, and licensing decisions must be announced to the public.^[18] The central and regional governments must finance waste management from the national and regional budgets.^[19] They may compensate people affected by handling activities at final processing sites, by relocation, environmental restoration, health and medical costs or other forms; the elucidation describes compensation as the government's accountability for such negative effects.^[20] Regional governments may cooperate with one another and district governments may partner with waste management companies under written agreements; the public may take part by giving proposals, helping formulate policy and advising on dispute settlement.^[21]

¶ Prohibitions and sanctions

Pasal 29 prohibits every person from bringing waste into Indonesian territory, importing waste, mixing waste with hazardous and toxic waste, managing waste in a way that causes pollution or environmental damage, disposing of waste outside designated places, handling waste by open dumping at final processing sites, and burning waste contrary to technical requirements. The last three prohibitions are elaborated by district and city regional regulations, which may impose short imprisonment (kurungan) or fines.^[5:1]

Regents and mayors may impose administrative sanctions on licensed waste operators who breach their licence conditions: government coercion, a coercive payment, or revocation of the licence.^[22] Disputes between regional governments and operators, or between operators and the public, may be settled out of court or by a tort claim; the law provides for class actions and gives standing to waste organisations that are legal entities with at least one year of activity, limited to claims for specific action and real costs.^[23] Civil-service investigators may investigate waste offences alongside the police.^[24]

The criminal provisions set minimum and maximum penalties. Unlawfully importing household or similar waste carries three to nine years' imprisonment and a fine of Rp100 million to Rp3 billion; importing specific waste carries four to twelve years and Rp200 million to Rp5 billion. A waste operator who intentionally disregards norms, standards, procedures or criteria in a way that can harm public health or safety or cause pollution faces four to ten years and Rp100 million to Rp5 billion, rising to five to fifteen years where a person dies or is seriously injured; negligence carries up to three years and Rp100 million, or up to five years and Rp500 million in case of death or serious injury. Offences committed for a corporation are attributed to it, and all are classed as crimes (kejahatan).^[25] The criminal provisions fall within criminal law and procedure in Indonesia.

¶ Transitional provisions and implementation

Regional governments had one year from the law's entry into force to plan the closure of final processing sites using open dumping, and five years to close them. Area and facility managers without sorting facilities had one year to provide them. Government and ministerial regulations required by the law were to be completed within one year of promulgation and regional regulations within three years, and existing waste regulations remained in force insofar as they were consistent with the law.^[26]

The regulation on household waste followed four years later: PP 81/2012 was signed on 12 October 2012 to implement, among others, Pasal 16, 20, 22, 24, 25 and 28 of the law.^[7:1] Under PP 81/2012 the national waste policy and strategy was set by Perpres 97/2017, and producer obligations were phased through Permen LHK 75/2019.^[27][28]

CRPG's regulatory tracker analysed the law in three posts on 17 December 2025, covering its definitions and categories of waste, the rights and obligations of the public and producers, and its prohibitions and criminal penalties.^{[8:1][9:1][10:1]}

¶ See also

• Waste banks in Indonesia
• Adipura
• UU 32/2009
• Environmental approval in Indonesia

¶ External links

• UU No. 18 Tahun 2008 (JDIH BPK)
• CRPG: Sanctions and Enforcement in Indonesia's Waste Management Law (crpg.id, 17 December 2025) (free sign-in required on crpg.id)
• CRPG: What Key Terms Define Indonesia's Waste Management System? (crpg.id, 17 December 2025) (free sign-in required on crpg.id)
• CRPG: What Rights and Obligations Apply to Waste Management in Indonesia? (crpg.id, 17 December 2025) (free sign-in required on crpg.id)

¶ References