Researchers led by I Wayan Koko Suryawan of Universitas Pertamina surveyed 640 residents of Jakarta, a megacity of more than ten million people whose rapid digital transformation has accelerated the replacement of laptops, personal computers, and smartphones. The team included end-users, electronics retailers, and representatives of recycling organizations, and supplemented the survey with semi-structured interviews involving government bodies, non-governmental organizations, and private companies. Their goal was to map how consumers weigh cost, convenience, environmental benefit, and data protection when deciding whether to participate in formal e-waste programs.

The study’s central concept is resilience: the capacity of consumers, manufacturers, and institutions to keep collection and recycling systems functioning as technology and policy conditions shift. The authors break consumer engagement into four behavioral attributes. Planning describes whether people organize device disposal on a schedule, ideally guided by brand recommendations. Interest captures motivation to join recycling and data-protection programs. Learning reflects the ability to absorb new disposal practices through education. Coping measures access to practical services, such as manufacturer-supported data erasure, that remove barriers to handing in a device.

To quantify these preferences, the team ran a choice experiment. An initial pool of 540 possible policy profiles, built from five attributes at multiple levels, was reduced to 25 statistically efficient scenarios using an orthogonal design, then grouped into choice sets of two alternatives plus a status quo option. Respondents were asked to pick their preferred program in each set, with payment levels ranging from zero to 50,000 Indonesian rupiah per item. The design was validated by a panel of eight experts, including an NGO officer, a scientist, two educators, and four government officials, and piloted with 50 participants in November 2023 before the main survey ran from December 2023 to March 2024.

The results, analyzed with Random Parameter Logit and Latent Class models, reveal a striking pattern: consumers want help, but not a takeover. Moderate brand guidance for scheduled disposal and secure data destruction carried a positive and statistically significant coefficient, with a marginal willingness to pay of roughly 17,799 rupiah per item. Fully brand-managed disposal, by contrast, was significantly negative. The same asymmetry appeared for education and coping. Gradual, brand-supported learning was the single most valued attribute at 37,835 rupiah per item, while intensive continuous education programs were rejected. Initial use of manufacturer data-handling services drew 26,057 rupiah, but comprehensive service packages were again viewed unfavorably.

The authors interpret this as a preference for incremental assistance that preserves consumer autonomy. Respondents appear to perceive fully centralized programs as complex, costly, or restrictive, and extensive interventions as burdensome relative to their actual needs. Price sensitivity also varied by group: the interaction analysis found that higher-income respondents earning more than 7.5 million rupiah per month, those with bachelor’s degrees, people who replace laptops in under two years, and those older than 39 were more responsive to program costs than the general sample.

The Latent Class Model sorted respondents into two segments. Class 1, about 80 percent of the sample, showed stable and consistent preferences favoring brand-guided disposal, participation in data-protection exchange programs, and sustainable purchasing habits. Its members tend to have higher incomes, higher education, and more frequent device replacement, and are generally younger than 39. Class 2, roughly 20 percent, produced statistically unstable estimates with standard errors far exceeding the coefficients, so the authors caution against reading precise preferences from it, though its existence signals a minority with divergent views on brand involvement.

From these results the team constructed three hypothetical engagement scenarios representing increasing levels of decoupling, the separation of economic activity from environmental harm. In the basic scenario, consumers follow brand-guided disposal routines and join data-protection exchanges, yielding an average willingness to pay of 2,751 rupiah per item. The intermediate scenario adds brand-led education at purchase and initial use of manufacturer data services, raising the figure to 6,177 rupiah. The advanced resilience scenario, combining planned disposal, active data-security participation, sustainable purchasing, and full use of brand-supported services, reaches 8,928 rupiah per item. The progression suggests consumers recognize and will pay for increasingly comprehensive systems.

The implications reach beyond Jakarta’s borders. Data security is a well-documented barrier to formal recycling worldwide, particularly for laptops and personal computers holding sensitive information, and the study indicates that reliable deletion services and transparent privacy protocols can convert hesitant owners into participants. For recyclers, more structured brand-supported collection would deliver predictable, higher-quality material flows and reduce the unsafe dismantling practices common in informal operations. Crucially, the authors stress that formal programs are meant to complement, not replace, Jakarta’s informal network, with buy-back schemes and partnerships that preserve the economic role of informal workers while improving traceability and treatment standards.

The authors also urge caution in generalizing. Jakarta’s density, logistics infrastructure, and high device consumption differ sharply from smaller Indonesian cities and rural regions, where informal collection dominates and formal services are sparse; brand-supported initiatives there would need adaptation through local partnerships and community-based awareness campaigns. Looking forward, they point to digital technologies such as the Internet of Things and distributed ledgers for tracking devices, and to policy instruments like tax benefits and subsidies, noting that evidence from the European Union shows stricter e-waste regulation can substantially lift recycling participation. As consumer attitudes and technology cycles continue to evolve, the study concludes, adaptive monitoring and sustained brand engagement will be essential to keeping e-waste systems resilient.

Subject of Research: Consumer willingness to pay for resilient, data-secure e-waste management in Jakarta

Article Title: Future directions and consumer engagement scenarios for data resilience in e-waste management in Jakarta

Article References: Suryawan, I. W. K., Sari, M. M., Rahman, A., Suhardono, S., & Lee, C.-H. (2026). Future directions and consumer engagement scenarios for data resilience in e-waste management in Jakarta. Cleaner Engineering and Technology, 34, Article 101288. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clet.2026.101288

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: Not provided

Keywords: e-waste, Jakarta, consumer behavior, data privacy, recycling, choice experiment, willingness to pay, resilience, informal sector, decoupling, brand engagement, Indonesia

The research, published in the journal Microplastics and Nanoplastics, focused on two coastal sampling sites in Greater Jakarta, a metropolitan area of more than thirty million people where land subsidence, saltwater intrusion and failing piped infrastructure have pushed many communities toward alternative water sources. Rainwater harvesting systems, which collect and store rooftop runoff for domestic use, have become an attractive coping strategy in this setting. But until now, little was known about whether the water these systems capture carries microscopic plastic particles and the chemical additives that leach from plastic products.

The team, led by Annisa Fitri Mustafa of the School of Environmental Sciences at Universitas Indonesia, together with colleagues including corresponding author Hayati Sari Hasibuan, set out to establish a baseline. Rather than counting plastic particles visually, as many earlier studies have done, they employed two of the most sensitive analytical techniques available for environmental contamination. Microplastic polymers were identified using pyrolysis gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry, known as Py-GC/MS/MS, a method that thermally breaks plastic molecules into characteristic fragments that can be identified with high confidence. Plastic additives were measured with ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry, or UHPLC-MS/MS, which can detect trace organic chemicals at extremely low concentrations.

The results paint a nuanced picture. In samples drawn from the rainwater harvesting systems, the researchers detected three common plastic polymers: polyvinyl chloride, or PVC, polyethylene terephthalate, or PET, and polymethyl methacrylate, or PMMA. PVC is ubiquitous in pipes, gutters and building materials, while PET is the polymer of beverage bottles, and PMMA, better known as acrylic, appears in construction and consumer products. Critically, the polymer composition and concentrations differed between the two sampling locations, suggesting that contamination is not uniform but shaped by local conditions.

That site-specific variation matters, the authors argue, because it hints at multiple contamination pathways. Rainwater passing over roofs, gutters and storage tanks can pick up fragments shed by the harvesting infrastructure itself, particularly where PVC piping and plastic tanks are involved. At the same time, atmospheric deposition may deliver plastic particles and dissolved additives directly into open storage. Jakarta’s intense urban activity, from traffic and waste burning to construction, generates a constant load of airborne particles, and plastic debris is increasingly recognized as a component of that urban aerosol. The study suggests that the observed contamination may reflect interactions among local environmental conditions, atmospheric deposition and the materials of the harvesting systems themselves.

The chemical side of the analysis proved equally revealing. After careful blank correction, the researchers detected plastic additives in both rainwater and rainwater harvesting system samples. These additives, which include compounds such as bisphenol A and phthalate plasticizers like DEHP, DBP and DEP, are incorporated into plastics to improve flexibility, durability or heat resistance. They are not chemically bound to the polymer matrix, meaning they can migrate out of plastic products and into surrounding water over time. Several of these compounds are recognized endocrine disruptors, capable of interfering with hormone systems even at low doses, which is why their presence in harvested drinking water sources warrants attention.

Intriguingly, no target microplastic polymers were detected above the method detection or quantification limits in the analyzed rainwater sample, even though additives were found in it. The authors are careful about how this discrepancy is interpreted. One possibility is that dissolved or particulate chemical additives travel through the atmosphere differently from intact polymer particles, or that the limited sampling did not capture polymer-contaminated rainfall events. The study was explicitly designed as a preliminary baseline investigation with a limited sampling design, and the researchers acknowledge potential blank-related uncertainty for some additives and the absence of direct source attribution. They stress that the findings should be read as preliminary baseline evidence rather than definitive measurements of exposure.

That cautious framing is a hallmark of the study’s quality assurance approach. The analytical work relied on method detection limits, quantitative detection limits, initial and continuing calibration verification, and multiple reaction monitoring in the tandem mass spectrometers, all standard tools of good laboratory practice. Pyrolysis-gas chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry is increasingly favored in microplastics research because it avoids some of the visual misidentification problems that plague microscopy-based counts, and pairing it with liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry allows both the particles and their chemistry to be assessed in parallel.

For Jakarta, the findings arrive at a politically and environmentally sensitive moment. Large parts of the Greater Jakarta coastal plain are sinking by several centimeters each year, and Indonesia is proceeding with plans to relocate its capital while investing heavily in water infrastructure. In neighborhoods where piped water is unreliable or saline, rooftop harvesting is often promoted as a resilient, decentralized solution. The new results do not argue against rainwater harvesting, but they do suggest that system design, materials selection and maintenance could influence the quality of stored water. First-flush diversion, filtration, and the use of less additive-rich storage materials are among the practical questions that follow from this work.

The authors call for future studies with expanded sampling, improved quality control and direct characterization of rainwater harvesting system materials, which would allow contamination to be traced to specific components of the collection infrastructure. They also point toward the need to understand how atmospheric deposition varies across the urban landscape, and whether seasonal monsoon dynamics in the Indonesian archipelago modulate the delivery of plastic particles and additives to rooftop catchments. As microplastics research matures worldwide, studies like this one underscore that the plastic pollution problem is not confined to rivers and oceans. It now extends into the sky above cities and into the rain that falls from it, quietly entering the alternative water systems on which millions of coastal residents may depend.

Subject of Research: Microplastic polymers and plastic additives in rainwater and rainwater harvesting systems in coastal Jakarta, Indonesia

Article Title: Microplastics and plastic additives in rainwater and rainwater harvesting systems in the Greater Jakarta Coastal Region, Indonesia

Article References: Mustafa, A. F., Ika, A. R., Chen, J.-W., Hartono, D. M., Hasibuan, H. S., & Chang-Chien, G.-P. (2026). Microplastics and plastic additives in rainwater and rainwater harvesting systems in the Greater Jakarta Coastal Region, Indonesia. Microplastics and Nanoplastics. https://doi.org/10.1186/s43591-026-00228-y

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1186/s43591-026-00228-y

Keywords: microplastics, plastic additives, rainwater harvesting, Jakarta, Indonesia, PVC, PET, PMMA, phthalates, bisphenol A, coastal water quality, Py-GC/MS/MS