Tofu Wastes in East Jakarta Pollute the Environment

Tofu, which is one of people’s favorite meals, is produced a lot in East Jakarta. There are at least 50 tofu factories in the municipality. Unfortunately, the factories’ waste management is not appropriate, thus polluting the environment.

There is a probability that residents could be infected with dengue fever because of the wastes

“Tofu is a small-medium industry which included as a labor intensive industry. This industry can absorb many workers,” said Head of East Jakarta Industry and Energy Sub-Department, Tuti Kurniati, Saturday (5/24).

According to Kurniati, the complexity of tofu production makes the factories do not manage it wastes correctly. As a result, it leads to negative effects, such as water and air pollution, source of many diseases, bad smell, until increasing mosquito’s growth and reducing environment beauty.

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“ There is a probability that residents could be infected with dengue fever because of the wastes ,” she told.

Moreover, Kurniati continued, tofu factories also often set aside principles of order, tidiness, cleanliness, sustainability, disciplinary, and safety (5K+S). If the production process conducted with 5K+S principles, the negative effects of tofu wastes could be minimized.

Firewood also becomes a problem faced by tofu factory owners. For information, the use of firewood for production process can cause air pollution.

“We have suggested them to convert energy from firewood to gas. But, gas price is quite expensive for them. They are willing to convert firewood to gas, but they are hoping for incentive or gas subsidy for their business. Thus, we will give subsidy considering fuel is very important for business continuity,” she stated.

Kurniati hopes that waste management would someday be directed with the help from various parties, such as corporate social responsibility (CSR). Not only that, technical guidance is also needed to improve entrepreneurs’ vision, knowledge, and skills. Thus, clean production process would increase product’s quality until employees’ attitude.

Regarding the issue of formalin usage in tofu production process as preservative, East Jakarta Industry and Energy Sub-Department did not find such a thing when doing crosscheck in the field.

“We often crosscheck to the field, but none of them are using formalin. It is likely that those using formalin are retailers who use it if they tofu were unsold,” expressed Kurniati.