Dompu writes the circular economy into its waste bylaw

A bylaw that names the economics

On Saturday 29 August 2026, the Dompu regency government confirmed that its draft regional regulation on waste management is through drafting and awaiting harmonisation before it can be enacted. The regulation is one of four draft bylaws that Regent Bambang Firdaus submitted to the Dompu legislature at a plenary session on 13 July 2026, alongside the budget framework for 2027.

What distinguishes this one is its stated basis. Mokh. Syaukani, Head of the Dompu Environmental Services Department, set out the difference directly.

This draft bylaw differs from earlier waste regulations because of the addition of a circular economy basis.

That is a more consequential drafting choice than it may appear. Most Indonesian district waste bylaws regulate a service: who collects, how often, what residents must pay, what is prohibited. A bylaw framed on circular economy principles has to regulate something harder, which is what happens to material after collection and who captures the value in it. It moves the legal object from a service to a material flow.

The operating principle Syaukani described follows from that. The regency intends to shift away from the collect, transport and dispose pattern toward management at source, organised around reduce, reuse and recycle, with only residue reaching final disposal.

The tonnage, and what sits inside it

Dompu generates roughly 114 tonnes of waste a day across the regency. Around 80 tonnes of that comes from the two urban districts, Dompu and Woja. Earlier reporting in June put regency generation at about 110 tonnes a day, and an assessment in May calculated 112.92 tonnes. The figures move within a narrow band rather than agreeing exactly, which is worth noting rather than smoothing, and all three point to the same working number of a little over 110 tonnes.

The composition is where the economic case sits. Organic material has been reported at around 70 percent of the total in June reporting and at about 60 percent in the May assessment. Even at the lower end, the majority of what Dompu handles is compostable rather than disposable.

The June figures put a value on that. If 40 percent of the organic fraction were processed, the regency could produce about 10.84 tonnes of compost a day. Priced at Rp700 per kilogram, that is worth roughly Rp2.7 billion a year. On the inorganic side, existing collection already runs at about 6 tonnes of plastic and 6 tonnes of paper and cardboard a week, with roughly 33 tonnes of recyclables gathered monthly.

The regency's landfill sits at Desa Lune in Kecamatan Pajo and covers 5 hectares. Collection is served by around 10 trucks with four person crews, with crew earnings of roughly Rp120,000 a day. A separate May assessment counted 9 trucks, 3 arm roll vehicles and 1 pickup, so fleet figures also vary by source and reporting date.

One TPS3R in every village

The clearest operational target in the draft is that every village should have at least one TPS 3R facility. These would be run by community groups, sorting and processing material so that anything still carrying economic value does not travel to the landfill.

Setting the target at one per village rather than a regency total is a deliberate design decision. A regency-wide tonnage target can be met by building two or three large facilities near the main towns, which leaves outlying villages with the same collect and dispose pattern they had before. A per village target distributes capacity to where material is generated, which matters in a regency where the urban districts account for 80 of 114 tonnes and the remainder is spread thinly.

It also puts village administrations and community groups in an operating role rather than a compliance role. Syaukani has been explicit that implementation depends on consistency between the regulation, the budget, the infrastructure and community participation. A bylaw can mandate a facility. It cannot, on its own, staff one.

Financing the operators, not only the facilities

Five days before the bylaw update, on 24 August, the Dompu government set out the financing side of the same agenda. It is encouraging banks to support circular economy activity through Kredit Usaha Rakyat, subsidised lending, and corporate social responsibility programmes directed at waste bank operators and community groups, covering working capital and supporting equipment.

Rony Haryato, Director of Bank Sampah Induk Dompu Green Asri, has asked for wider financing access so that more operators can build sustainable circular businesses. BSI Dompu Green Asri is currently the regency's only central waste bank. It works with 46 schools through the Ocean Heroes programme, with a target of 200 schools during 2026, and the wider network includes 4 village units and 4 collector partners.

Ocean Heroes has produced measurable volume, collecting in the range of 4,500 to 5,000 kilograms of plastic a month with about 6,700 students taking part. Participants receive an incentive of Rp1,000 per kilogram of plastic through a partnership with Plastic Bank Indonesia, paid monthly via an application, and top collecting schools have received equipment awards including laptops and projectors. The regency has branded the wider effort Dompu SALAM, from sampah bernilai money.

Pairing the bylaw with a financing push is the part other districts should notice. A regulation that requires a TPS 3R in every village creates demand for operators. Without access to working capital, those operators do not appear, and the facility becomes a building with no business running inside it.

Sirkularium's view for government and public institutions

Three points for district and provincial governments.

First, on drafting. Districts writing or revising a waste bylaw this year should look closely at how Dompu has framed the legal object. Regulating material flow and value capture, rather than only service delivery, is what gives a local government the standing to set specifications, to formalise waste bank arrangements and to require that recoverable material is separated before disposal. It is a small change in framing with a wide reach.

Second, on the per village target. This is a useful and portable device. It converts an abstract diversion percentage into a countable, auditable unit of infrastructure that a village head can be held to and a budget office can cost. Districts should pair it with a published schedule of which villages are served in which year, so the target does not quietly concentrate in the easiest locations.

Third, on sequencing regulation with credit. The 24 August financing conversation and the 29 August bylaw update belong to one programme, and that is the right structure. We would encourage Dompu to publish the terms that emerge from the banking discussions, including whether KUR is being accessed by waste bank operators in practice and at what volume. That evidence is scarce nationally, and other districts trying to finance community operators would use it.

What to watch next: the harmonisation and enactment timetable for the bylaw, whether the budget attached to it funds the first tranche of village TPS 3R facilities, whether Ocean Heroes reaches 200 schools within 2026, and whether compost production begins at a scale that tests the Rp2.7 billion estimate.

Dompu has written the economics into the regulation rather than leaving it to a later programme document. Sirkularium will continue following whether the financing follows the drafting.