Permission to Waste? Reconsidering the Indonesian Legal Framework of Hazardous Waste Management from Environmental Rights Perspective

Indonesia's hazardous waste management regime represents a complex and evolving area of environmental regulation that raises fundamental questions about the protection of environmental rights. This study investigates how hazardous waste laws relate to environmental rights and examines whether current environmental provisions can be seen as implicitly allowing hazardous waste disposal. The central question is: how are these regulations perceived from the perspective of environmental rights? Using a normative legal research approach, the study analyzes both national and international legal standards for hazardous waste management. The findings reveal that Law No. 32 of 2009 on Environmental Protection and Management supports environmental rights by incorporating principles such as pollution prevention from the Stockholm Declaration and the precautionary principle from the Rio Declaration. However, Law No. 6 of 2023 and its regulations show inconsistencies; they require hazardous waste management through business licensing but lack specific penalties for violations. Indonesia permits the export and transit of hazardous waste, yet the rules around these activities are insufficient. For instance, Indonesia is not listed as a transit country under the Protocol on Liability and Compensation for Damage from Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal under the Basel Convention (1999), creating accountability gaps for cross-border environmental harm. This study urges a re-evaluation of whether current regulations sufficiently protect the environment and support environmentally sound management both domestically and internationally.