Ecological Justice-Based Waste Management Strategy: Policy Directions to Support Sustainable Development Goals

Abstract

Waste management in Indonesia remains constrained by a persistent gap between the constitutional guarantee of a good and healthy environment (das sollen) and the empirical reality of reactive law enforcement and unequal service coverage (das sein). This study analyses the concept of justice within Indonesia’s waste management system through the lenses of ecological justice and sustainable environmental law, and formulates a justice-based law-enforcement model to support the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Employing a socio-legal method, the study integrates statutory, conceptual, and case-based documentary approaches using secondary data from 2023–2026. The findings show that Indonesia’s Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) regime remains disproportionately focused on packaging waste, short of a comprehensive, life-cycle-based framework, and that reactive enforcement centred on high-profile landfill closures fails to deliver distributive, corrective, and procedural justice to vulnerable communities near disposal facilities. This paper formulates a differentiated law-enforcement model: strict administrative, civil, and criminal sanctions target large-scale corporate offenders and illegal landfill operators, while minor violations by ordinary citizens are addressed through education, corrective measures, and infrastructure development. Policy implications include revising EPR regulations, establishing a dedicated Producer Responsibility Organisation (PRO), and institutionalising mandatory community consultation to advance SDGs 11, 12, 13, and 16.