Taman Indah di Atas Timbunan Sampah

http://megapolitan.kompas.com/read/2015/02/28/15020021/Taman.Indah.di.Atas.Timbunan.Sampah?utm_source=WP&utm_medium=box&utm_campaign=Kknwp
Oleh: Pingkan E Dundu


KOMPAS/RADITYA HELABUMI
Selain untuk menampung sampah, sejumlah lahan di tempat pembuangan akhir (TPA) Rawa Kucing, Neglasari, Kota Tangerang, Banten, dimanfaatkan untuk taman dan kolam ikan, Rabu (25/2/2015).

TANGERANG, KOMPAS - Tempat Pembuangan Akhir Rawa Kucing di Kota Tangerang mematahkan mitos bahwa timbunan sampah warga selalu identik dengan bau busuk dan segala hal menjijikkan lainnya.

Di Rawa Kucing justru menghampar taman hijau dengan pepohonan tinggi dan bonsai dilengkapi saung untuk bersantai. Warga pun bisa berwisata gratis, sekaligus belajar mengolah sampah yang ramah lingkungan.

Wajah baru TPA Rawa Kucing seluas 34,8 hektar di Kelurahan Kedaung Wetan, Kecamatan Neglasari, Kota Tangerang, Banten, ini dirintis sejak tahun lalu. "Terobosan dengan teknologi ramah lingkungan, TPA bisa jadi tempat wisata bersih lagi indah," kata Kepala TPA Rawa Kucing Masnan.

Jalan setapak dari bata beton (paving block) selebar 1-1,5 meter membelah taman. Saat ini, baru 1.000 meter persegi dari total luas TPA yang menjadi taman dan fasilitasnya. Tercatat ada 50 jenis tanaman, termasuk pohon keras, pohon pelindung, juga tanaman hias turut tumbuh subur, seperti ketapang, trembesi, sengon, lavender, dan kamboja jepang.

Di sisi timur taman itu, ada kolam ikan berukuran 40 meter x 60 meter. Air kolam berasal dari sumber mata air dari tanah bekas tumpukan sampah yang ada sebelum penataan Rawa Kucing dilakukan. Pekan lalu, 10.000 bibit mujair ditebar ke dalam kolam itu. Permainan air mancur menari di tengah kolam menyejukkan mata yang memandanginya.

Bersebelahan dengan taman, di sisi utara membentang lahan dilapisi hijau rumput seluas 30 meter x 15 meter yang difungsikan sebagai lapangan futsal. Siapa pun tak mengira bahwa
di bawah lahan hijau itu bekas tumpukan sampah yang sudah diratakan.

"Di sini juga akan dikembangkan pertanian terpadu. Masyarakat dan anak sekolah nanti bisa belajar bagaimana memilah sampah dengan teknologi dan pembuatan kompos," kata Kepala Dinas Kebersihan dan Pertamanan Kota Tangerang Ivan Yulianto.

Jika semua rencana terealisasi, TPA Rawa Kucing akan menjadi tempat wisata edupark atau taman pendidikan berwawasan lingkungan sekaligus hutan kota. Agar akses warga makin terbuka ke Rawa Kucing, Ivan mendambakan segera
ada pelebaran jalan menuju TPA.

"Awalnya, saya tidak percaya kalau TPA bisa seperti ini," kata Achmad Irfan (28), warga Sangiang Jaya, Periuk, Kota Tangerang. Ia datang ke tempat itu diajak temannya untuk bermain futsal. Diharapkan daerah lain pun bisa menata kawasan TPA seperti di Rawa Kucing.

Limbah kopi

Dalam sehari, 1.000 ton sampah yang dihasilkan warga dan industri di Kota Tangerang masuk ke TPA Rawa Kucing. Sementara masih ada sekitar 300 meter kubik sampah per hari yang diolah di tingkat warga, sampah bernilai ekonomi yang ditampung bank sampah dan selebihnya ditangani oleh komunitas warga. Namun, tetap ada sebagian sampah warga yang dibuang ke kali dan saluran air.

Dengan volume sampah seperti sekarang, dalam lima tahun ke depan TPA Rawa Kucing sudah kelebihan kapasitas. Untuk itu, Pemerintah Kota Tangerang meningkatkan upaya pengolahan sampah di tingkat lingkungan permukiman warga.

Sekretaris Dinas Kebersihan Kota Tangerang Sugiharto Achmad Bagja mengatakan, pihaknya menggenjot penggunaan teknologi fermentasi dengan menggunakan limbah kopi untuk mempercepat proses pengolahan sampah menjadi pupuk kompos.

Dinas kebersihan mencoba membandingkan tumpukan sampah yang dilapisi limbah kopi dengan yang dilapisi sekam. Pada hari ke-27, sampah setinggi 1,5 meter yang diberi kopi susut hingga tersisa tumpukan setinggi 40 sentimeter. Sementara sampah yang menggunakan lapisan sekam susut hingga 50 sentimeter. Dekomposisi sampah terbukti lebih cepat dengan limbah kopi.

Menurut Sugiharto, limbah kopi bisa mengendalikan vektor penyakit karena sampah tertutup dan bau tereduksi, bahkan bau kopi bisa lebih dominan.

Pasokan limbah kopi, kata Ivan, mereka dapatkan dari bank sentra sampah yang diperoleh secara gratis dari sejumlah industri produk kemasan kopi yang selama ini bercokol di Kota Tangerang dan Kabupaten Tangerang.

Baru langkah awal

Kerja sama dengan pihak swasta ini menjadi secercah harapan mengatasi masalah Kota Tangerang. Di daerah yang dipenuhi industri dan permukiman yang terus tumbuh berjejalan seiring dengan perkembangan kota, sekaligus imbas dari pertumbuhan tetangganya, ibu kota Jakarta, sampah selalu menjadi masalah kronis.

Bahkan, pada 2008, Kota Tangerang mendapat julukan sebagai "Kota Terkotor" versi Kementerian Lingkungan Hidup. Namun, upaya menggandeng warga, komunitas, dan pelaku usaha untuk mengolah sampah yang dilakukan jauh sebelum pembenahan di TPA Rawa Kucing mengantar kota ini menjadi salah satu penerima Adipura sebagai "Kota Tebersih" pada 2009. Pada 2013 dan 2014, Kota Tangerang berhasil menyabet Adipura Kencana.

Keberhasilan dalam mengolah sampah membuat Badan Pengelola Sampah dan Kebersihan Malaysia datang berguru mengolah sampah di Kota Tangerang, akhir Januari lalu. Lembaga Riset Muda Indonesia juga memilih Kota Tangerang sebagai kota pertama di Indonesia untuk dijadikan riset proyek dalam pengujian dan pengolahan sampah berbasis ramah lingkungan.

Meskipun masalah sampah belum total terurai, bagi Wali Kota Tangerang Arief R Wismansyah, langkah awal ini menunjukkan upaya kotanya menjadi layak huni, layak berinvestasi, dan layak dikunjungi sudah dalam koridor yang tepat. Semoga.

EPA Urges Teflon Chemical Ban

http://www.webmd.com/news/20060127/epa-urges-teflon-chemical-ban
By Daniel J. DeNoon  Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD

DuPont Agrees to Phase-Out of Worrisome Pollutant PFOA
WebMD News Archive

Jan. 27, 2006 - Chemical industry leaders have agreed to an EPA plan to phase out a chemical used to make Teflon, microwave popcorn bags, waterproof clothing, and many other products.

The chemical, PFOA (also known as C8), is a man-made chemical that persists in the environment. When it gets into the body, it stays there for a very long time. And it has somehow gotten into the bodies of nearly everyone on earthsomehow gotten into the bodies of nearly everyone on earth.

Most experts don't think it's hurting us -- yetexperts don't think it's hurting us -- yet. Factory workers exposed to relatively high levels of PFOA don't seem to have particularly severe health problems. But animal studies strongly suggest that when enough PFOA builds up in the body, it can cause cancer, liver damage, growth defects, immune-system damage, and death.

This week, the EPA announced a voluntary "PFOA stewardship" program asking the eight companies that make PFOA to stop. The program would reduce the use of PFOA by 95% by 2010. It would eliminate production of the chemical by 2015 at the latest.

That's good, because it takes the body 10 years to eliminate PFOA from the body -- if there's no new exposure. And since the chemical is all over the earth, we're always getting new exposures. Stopping production means that we won't be exposed to increasing amounts of PFOA.

"Our risk assessment work is still under way and additional studies are in progress -- but we're not waiting for final answers," EPA spokeswoman Enesta Jones tells WebMD. "This stewardship program takes immediate steps to ensure that people are not exposed to increasing amounts of PFOA as time goes on."

Teflon maker DuPont already has signed on to the plan. A chemical very similar to PFOA, called PFOS, was used by 3M Corp. to make Scotchgard and other products. In May 2000, after negotiations with EPA, 3M phased out PFOS use.

The nonprofit Environmental Working Group has been trying for years to get PFOA banned. The watchdog group praises the DuPont and 3M actions. Toxicologist Tim Kropp, PhD, is a senior scientist with Environmental Working Group.

"The EPA stewardship program is a really good framework for phasing out chemicals that have caused a very large public health problem in the U.S.," Kropp tells WebMD. "It is going to phase out PFOA and any compound that breaks down into PFOA, whether as an emission from a factory or the breakdown of things in consumer products."

Phasing out PFOAs doesn't mean that we'll have to give up having nonstick pans or waterproof clothing. Smaller molecules that don't stick in the body can work just as well as PFOAs. Kropp says 3M switched to these safer chemicals five years ago.

What About My Nonstick Pans?

Kropp says nonstick pans, when overheated, give off fumes that kill birds. He's quick to add that birds -- such as the canaries once used in coal mines -- are extremely sensitive to toxic substances. And he's just as quick to add that Teflon and other nonstick pans aren't major sources of PFOA.

PFOA is used to make nonstick pans. But nearly all of it burns off during manufacture.

"When making gravy, a cook might use vodka to deglaze a pan," Kropp says. "But there's no alcohol in the gravy -- all the alcohol burns off. That is almost how nonstick pans are made. The little molecules evaporate off and aren't in the pan anymore."

That's true, says Mary Dominiak, the coordinator for the EPA's PFOA investigation.

"We do not expect to see significant PFOA in something like a frying pan," Dominiak told WebMD last year.

Robert Rickard, PhD, DuPont's chief toxicologist, stresses this point.

"With pots and pans, there is no exposure to PFOA," he told WebMD last year. "That is based on studies we have conducted, and also on studies in Denmark and in China. There is absolutely not a consumer issue with this."

Microwave Popcorn a Different Story?

What about all those other products that use PFOA? Kropp says that french fry boxes and microwave popcorn bags are coated with a film rich in PFOA. And he says PFOA "precursors" -- chemicals that turn into PFOA -- get eaten along with microwave popcorn.

But Susan Hazen, acting assistant administrator for the EPA's Office of Prevention, Pesticides, and Toxic Substances, says there's no evidence that consumer products are poisoning people with PFOAs.

"The information that we have available does not indicate that the routine use of household products poses a concern," Hazen tells WebMD in an email interview. "At the present time, EPA does not believe there is any reason for consumers to stop using products because of concerns about PFOA."

Kropp wishes the EPA could be even more help to consumers.

What it all comes down to is what is the consumer exposed to, and what can they do," he says. "And while consumers can do some things -- like microwave regular popcorn in a plain brown bag -- they can't do others. You shouldn't have to have a PhD in toxicology to buy a pair of pants."

View Article Sources 

© 2006 WebMD, Inc. All rights reserved.

Kaiser Doubles Down on Investments in Renewables to Reduce Impacts of Climate Change

http://ecowatch.com/2015/02/19/kaiser-invests-renewables-energy-to-reduce-climate-change/
Anastasia Pantsios 

Saying that it was “concerned about climate change and its threat to human health,” major health care provider Kaiser Permanente announced yesterday that it’s doubling down on its commitment to renewable energy. The Oakland-based company, which runs hospitals and clinics across the country, detailed plans to purchase enough renewable energy to provide for half its energy needs in California and reduce its greenhouse gas emissions nationally by 30 percent.


Kaiser has contracted to purchase electricity from a solar farm, as well as to install solar photovoltaic panels at many of its California facilities. Image credit: Kaiser Permanente

“Climate change isn’t a distant threat,” said Kathy Gerwig, Kaiser Permanente’s environmental stewardship officer. “The health impacts of a changing climate can be felt today in the form of increasing rates of asthma and other respiratory ailments, spread of infectious diseases, heat stress and injuries from severe weather events. By addressing climate change for the future, we are improving the health of communities today.”

Kaiser committed to supporting three major projects that will come online in 2016 and generate 590 million kilowatt hours of power a year. First, it has signed an agreement to buy electricity from Golden Hills wind farm at Altamont Pass in Southern California, where Florida-based NextEra Energy is replacing older turbines with new, more efficient ones. That’s the same wind farm Google announced last week it would purchase energy from. Both companies signed 20-year deals to support the construction of the project.

Then, it signed another deal with NextEra to buy 110 megawatts from the Blythe solar plant, which is being developed in Riverside County. Finally, it signed a deal with Texas/New Jersey-based NRG Energy to install solar photovoltaic (PV) arrays—both rooftop and ground-mounted—at as many as 170 of its California facilities. NRG will finance, build, own and operate the arrays with Kaiser buying the energy at a fixed cost over 20 years, protecting Kaiser from energy price escalation

“Pursuing renewable energy opportunities is not only the right thing to do for our communities, it makes good business sense,” said Kaiser’s chief energy officer Ramé Hemstreet.

But it is definitely the right thing to do, he said.

“The energy we use to run our medical centers and other buildings produces the majority of our greenhouse gas emissions,” said Hemstreet. “Replacing fossil fuels as an energy source with green power is the most important action we can take to address the impacts of climate change on health and to reduce pollutants that can lead to disease.”

In 2012, Kaiser announced its longterm goal to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent by 2020 compared to 2008. The new deals will allow it to meet its goal three years early.

Kaiser registered about 819,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions during its 2008 baseline year across all its facilities nationwide. It is aiming for a reduction of 264,000 metric tons to achieve its target. And with health care-related activities generating eight percent of the greenhouse gases emissions in the U.S., it would like to see others follow its lead. It’s partnering with other organizations like Health Care Without Harm and the Business Renewables Center to help move more businesses to clean energy.

“We are working with many partners to influence the marketplace,” says Gerwig. “We want to move the entire health care sector to energy that is not causing harm through climate change or air pollution.”