Developing countries, after achieving independence from colonialism, generally adopt conventional waste management system [1] viewing the waste management as a government affair [2]. Conventional waste management, such as open dumping, is generally seen ineffective and unsustainable [3]. Also, in developing countries, most conventional methods are financially constrained [4]. This condition then bring some impacts on the low waste collection process and causes illegal disposal, especially in urban areas [5]. Managing waste to energy (WtE) in turn is seen as a solution for waste management with the co-benefit of electricity generation [6]. WtE has been applied in developed countries such as the United States, China, Japan [7], and Taiwan [8]. Solid waste management is something that almost every city government offers to its citizens [9]. While service levels, environmental impacts [10], and costs vary greatly, solid waste management is arguably the most important municipal service and is required for all other municipal actions [11]. Incineration is uncommon and, in general, ineffective due to high capital, technical, and operating costs, high moisture content in waste, and a high percentage of inerts. Some incinerators are in use, but they are facing financial and operational challenges [11]. Prevalent in areas with high land costs and limited land availability.

However, WtE can be adequately managed by increasing public awareness of the environment and cooperation from various stakeholders to take advantage of opportunities for renewable energy sources [15] through the development of technology [16]. An optimal local government-NGO collaborative governance approach in terms of the waste management process can enhance public participation and respond to state decentralization and rising environmental issues in urban areas [17].

Overall, the application of sustainable development can be made by prompting more environmentally sustainable and socially responsible by creating norms, rules, and standardized procedures [18]. The problem of waste is very complex [19], from finding a location for landfilling that always causes rejection from the community to the technology that will be used to process the waste [20]. In practice, waste management raises several problems such as the rapidly increasing need for landfill land due to not carrying out an effective waste volume reduction process [21].

The circular economy is an alternative to the current linear waste management scheme, production process, use, economic model, which preserves the resources used as long as possible [30]. It also extracts the maximum value in the use mechanism, product recovery, and regeneration of products and/or materials at remaining used. The concept of a circular economy is a response to the aspiration to realize sustainable development in the context of the enormous pressures of production and consumption on natural resources and the environment. The circular economy system plays a role in a linear waste management model where every waste material is optimally managed. This view of the circular economy concept can be more easily seen in the natural aspect, where all living systems work optimally because they influence each other [30]. For this reason, this study divided three grade levels in WtE acceptance. The three nested sustainability systems include the economy wholly contained by society, and entirely managed by the environment (Figure 1). With this concept, the improvement of society with low participation must be increased. Therefore, the sustainability of the WtE program needs to concern with this for enabling this program to run smoothly.

Figure 1.

The concept of sustainable environment, society, and economic development

In turn, the results of this study can be used as a reference in efforts to increase revenue for sustainable development, significantly reducing waste generation and achieving clean energy at the city level. The burden of pollution from poor waste management can be reduced and can be used for the construction of WtE facilities in Jakarta, even in several cities in Indonesia and other developing countries. Because WtE is an effective solution to both issues, it requires intense scientific attention. WtE management is distinguished by various technologies, refers to a variety of waste types, and necessitates multidisciplinary decision support [31]. WtE has the potential to be applied without regard to the waste hierarchy principle and resource conservation if the energy value is sufficiently high [32]. To make sure that the waste sector provides secondary raw materials to the economy as predicted by circular economy, rather than serving as a secondary source of energy, we need a more in-depth consideration of the role of WtE in this system.

The objective of this study to establish the level of public acceptance for WtE, allowing WtE to be adequately managed by raising public knowledge. Most studies have merely mentioned the potential for WtE applications and do not recognize the urgency in terms of the public's acceptance of WtE. A new perspective will be acquired by clarifying the WtE program using the hypothesis of the sustainability environment, society, and economic development framework of community groups.

This study used quantitative data with simple random sampling techniques to estimate citizen willingness’ to acceptance of WtE program. First, a literature study was carried out so that the right questionnaire structure was obtained. Then a pretest test was carried out on the questionnaire that was made and then survey execution was carried out on the number of respondents according to a significance of 5% of the total population.

This research was conducted in Jakarta (Figure 2) from August to November 2021. A random sampling was carried out on residents using a hybrid method, namely using Google forms and direct interviews. The purpose of simple random sampling was to reduce the potential for human bias in selecting cases to be included in the sample. Furthermore, the sample is part of the population taken to represent the entire population to be used as the respondents in a study. In this study, the samples were taken using Slovin's equation where the use of a total population of 10,562,088 people [33] showed that the minimum number of samples was 400 people.

Figure 2.

Study location in DKI Jakarta

DKI Jakarta Province has implemented WtE at Bantargebang Landfill using applied landfill gas recovery method [5]. In May 2018, the Government of Special Capital Region of Jakarta began to build WtE as a processing in the primary process by creating an Intermediate Treatment Facility (ITF) [12]. The central government has also carried out several acceleration efforts by issuing Presidential Regulation Number 18 of 2016 concerning the acceleration of Waste-Based Power Plants (PLTSa) [13]. However, this presidential regulation was challenged by environmentalists claiming that the presidential regulation, referring to the use of incinerator technology, was not environmentally friendly and contradicted several previous laws. Therefore, the government again issued a presidential regulation to accelerate WtE development in several cities in Indonesia. Presidential Regulation Number 35 of 2018 concerning Acceleration of Construction of Waste Processing Installations into Electrical Energy Based on Environmentally Friendly Technology has forced the government to accelerate the development of WtE technology [14].

A number of social factors can affect community participation [22] in waste management including age, education, income level, occupation, and family members [23]. In addition, education level, family income level, and behavior towards environmental cleanliness, knowledge of waste regulations, willingness to participate, and waste retribution positively correlate with household waste management [24]. This study aimed to determine the level of public acceptance of WtE technology in Jakarta city. In Indonesia, the calorific value of waste is typically lower than the minimum standard for waste processing with an incinerator [25] or drying [26] with RDF recovery [27]. As a result, in order to meet the required heating value for WtE, must employ pre-treatment facilities [28]. In principle, the plan developed is a thermal process technology with the name intermediate treatment facility (ITF) [29]. This ITF aims to reduce waste as much as 80-90% of the total capacity of the amount of waste in each ITF facility [12].

First, Total Variance Explained value is used to determine the number of factors formed by choosing the main factor or component with the smallest characteristic root parameter (total eigenvalue) < 1. These steps determine the factors affecting the acceptance of WtE technology in Jakarta. Table 2 shows the determining factors of the acceptance performance of WtE technology in Jakarta. Based on the factor analysis results, the factors had a total eigenvalue < 1.

As seen in Table 3, three factors had a total eigenvalue < 1. The factors formed consisted of factors 1 with a total eigenvalue of 2.897 with a variance value of 36.21%, factor 2 with a total eigenvalue of 1.748 with a variance value of 21.89%, and factor 3 with a total eigenvalue of 1.124 with a variance value of 14.05%. The total percentage of the variance of the three factors was 73.94%. Thus, 73.94% of all existing variables can be explained by the three formed factors. These two factors can explain their influence of 72.11% on factors that influence public acceptance of WtE technology. The Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin (0.604) and Barlet (p-value = 0.000) test also showed that variables have been feasible to be applied in factor analysis.

The scree plot diagram shows the factors formed based on the eigenvalues (Figure 3). Determining the name of the factor included in factor analysis can be done by giving the name of the factor representing the names of the variables making up the factor and giving the name of the factor based on the variable that has the highest value factor loading. Say, based on the first method, factor 1 is formed from an increase in economic value, open business opportunities, and open jobs, called socio-economic. Factor 2 includes reducing water pollution and GHG impact, so factor 2 is called as the environmental impact factor. Factor 3 includes reducing land use, supporting environmental health, and improving aesthetics, called as development.

Figure 3.

Results of eigenvalue and component number factor analysis of WtE acceptance in Jakarta

Clustering is an activity that aims to group data with similarities between one data and other data into clusters or groups so that data in one cluster has a maximum level of similarity and data between clusters has a minimum similarity. Clustering can also be interpreted as a data segmentation method implemented in several fields, including patterns, regional zoning, object identification, and image processing. In addition, cluster analysis aims to find the groups of objects in such a way that objects in a group will be the same (or related) to each other and different from objects in other groups. In this study, the cluster analysis of the acceptance value of WtE in Jakarta used the K-means algorithm, with the number of clusters being three. The formation results of cluster groups were based on the score factor value for each observation or respondent. Cluster 1 is comprised of individuals or communities that have a high awareness for the environmental effect values but a low support for socio-economic and political growth, also known as low participation. Cluster 2 encompasses all of the contributing variables, and as such, it is considered a positive factor for the sustainable environment. The third and final cluster has a high socio-economic and development level, but a poor awareness for the influence that human activity has on the environment; for this reason, it is considered to be pro-economic and pro-social.

Analysis of variance (ANOVA) determined the WtE acceptance factor that significantly affected each resulting cluster. After the ANOVA test, the ANOVA results were obtained, as illustrated in Table 3. Based on these results, high significance value was found in the interaction groups cluster 1-3 and 2-3. While the interaction cluster 1-2 did not show a significance in Environmental Impact factor. For this cluster it needed an improvement in terms of the knowledge of environmental problem in Jakarta to become pro sustainable in environment.

Chi-square analysis was carried out for each quantitative data, namely the social demographic and awareness characteristics of the respondents in this study. Table 4 shows that job, income, knowledge, and acceptance had a significance value of 5%.

Multinomial Logit analysis is used if the response variable (dependent) is categorized into three or more categories in the research variable. In this study, the dependent variable (Y) referred to the acceptance of WtE technology. Meanwhile, quantitative data in gender, marital status, age, higher education level, job, and income were used as the X-axis. The multinomial logit test in this study was carried out in four models. Overall, each model showed a higher education level and income indicating the acceptance of WtE technology, except for Model II. In addition, in model I (Over all) and the model IV (Pro economy and society), gender also influenced acceptance, in this case female that were more accepting of WtE technology. The most significant variable in all models was knowledge already known by the community. People who have read the issue and the urgency of this technology gave a positive response to the acceptance of WtE.

Meanwhile, income had the highest significance in the models I and model III. The accuracy of each model had a value of more than 50%, especially in model III, which had a value of 97%, showing that the former model was quite good to describe the local acceptance of the acceptance of WtE technology (Table 5). Meanwhile, 2 Log likelihood also had a value above the Chi-square value so that this equation can be used.

Population growth cannot be separated from economic development, production and fulfilment of life needs, improvement of life quality, and welfare [50]. However, to meet the needs and improve the life quality, economic growth must continue to be encouraged [51]. The target of economic growth, one of the efforts made by a country, is to distribute development evenly, either in the form of infrastructure or in the form of human resource development. In all these efforts, whether in terms of economic growth, equitable development, or regarding simply fulfilling the necessities of life, sufficient energy sources are needed to drive the activities and productivity of society and industry [52]. Therefore, along with population growth, the fulfilment of community needs, economic growth targets, and the need for energy also escalates.

The socio-economic factors formed in this study showed the community's desire to get the circular economy obtained from the WtE project. Waste management plants/facilities are built with public money to provide public service [53]. In economic calculations annual cash flow of the system is equalized with zero, taking into account all incomes from products like energy vectors, secondary materials, compost and investment and operating costs [53]. The Jakarta Government is the initiator of infrastructure development, one of the supporters of economic growth [54]. Therefore, development related to WtE infrastructure is deemed critical for having a large and sustainable multiplier effect on the progress of the national economy. In addition, infrastructure development is expected to be a trigger for accelerating an equitable development throughout Indonesia. This impacts several sectors, including increasing employment opportunities [55] in various regions, which reduces poverty levels and economic disparities between areas.

Environmental factor is one of the most important factors in the urgency of implementing WtE in Jakarta [56]. The existing waste management will cause some ecological problems like other waste disposal sites [57]. Classic problems commonly exist unpleasant odours, contamination of groundwater by residual leachate that is not channelled to leachate treatment [58]. In addition, the unutilized methane gas released into the air can cause a greenhouse gas effect in the earth's atmosphere, which is more dangerous [56]. Public awareness of environmental conditions is now also a driving factor for sustainable development, especially for waste management encouraging the creation of clean energy.

Then, the last factor formed is the development of WtE. The formation of development factors is also driven by regulations and the existing conditions [59], including Jakarta. Therefore, as one of the steps or efforts to overcome the increasing volume of waste, government encourages the waste processing by changing it into electrical energy based on environmentally friendly technology [60]. The Perpers 35/2018 states that waste management aims to improve public health and the life quality of the local environment, and to significantly reduce the waste volume for the cleanliness and beauty of the city and to use waste as a resource to gain the added value. However, inviting the involvement of business entities in processing waste into electrical energy is not simple. More uncertainties for business entities in the waste processing project into electrical energy [59] have created, doubts for business entities to invest in this sector. The government also needs to encourage local to recycle and reuse the waste archive circular economy [56].

The public acceptance of WtE thermal-based is affected by such demographic variables as age, or education level. [61]. In this research, this study's demographics showed a significantly higher education and income level than the others. The logit equation test showed that the higher the level of education and income, the higher the acceptance of WtE. This also showed the need to promote social economic development conforming to the unique ecological environment and capacity to achieve coordinated development [62].

Improving the quality of human resources can be done through education [63]. The primary role of education is to alert citizens who are able to develop an integrated democratic behaviour to increase the living standard based on productive social democracy. Education is a solution to economic, social, and environmental problems. [64] Through education, people are able to improve their personal qualities and abilities to improve the living standard for themselves and their families. The public becomes more educated and is not easily provoked by the propaganda of certain parties who want to disrupt political stability and social life in the community. Education can encourage welfare and people's behaviour to be more modern and accept any differences in the environment surrounding.

Creating an integrated waste management system requires a large budget as well as cooperation between the government and the community. The community's willingness to help the government in providing several facilities and infrastructure for waste management is by contributing the rest of the community's income every month. The factors that greatly affect the willingness to pay of each individual are the individual's income level and education level, where the results of his research showed a positive and significant effect on the individual's willingness to pay value [65]. While the variables of age, number of family members, employment status and gender had no significant effect on people's willingness to pay. Finally, increasing WtE acceptance based on factor and cluster analysis for WtE acceptance can be done by paying attention to the scheme in Figure 4.

Figure 4.

The evaluation framework of factor and cluster analysis for WtE acceptance

As the development of WtE in Jakarta City become an upcoming issue, knowing public preference and acceptance is necessary to achieve a sustainability in the project implementation. This study has resulted in a number of findings including eight main attributes and three factors to define the public preferences of the WtE development and implementation in Jakarta City. Of these factors, socio-economic factor was found as the most influential factor to the WtE public preference and acceptance, followed by environmental impact and development factors. It indicated that the community will strongly involve to the WtE project if they can obtain an economic value from the project. Employment opportunities may be endorsed for achieving public acceptance in Jakarta City. Besides, it was found that there are three clusters of respondents which can be defined as pro economy, pro society, and pro ecological environment. The pro economy and pro society cluster should also be concerned and managed by the project developer as if they want the program can be run better. A higher level of education is found to be the highest discriminant variables that can encourage the community to develop a better perception of the WtE project development. Therefore, the education level and potential income generation from the project can be determined as the most influencing factors for developing and implementing WtE in Jakarta City. The acceptance of the public to the WtE project later on can lead to the achievement of the sustainability of clean and environmentally friendly energy from waste.

The researcher would like to thank all those who have supported the survey and data collection in this research. In addition, the researchers also thank the reviewers who have supported optimizing the results of the study. The authors declare no conflict of interest.