Criminal Liability for Medical Waste Management That Endangers Public Health

Abstract

Medical waste from hospitals and community health centres contains infectious material and sharps, and
when it is left unmanaged it endangers waste workers, scavengers and nearby residents. This study
analyses criminal liability for medical waste management that endangers public health, using penal
policy at the formulation, application and execution stages. It applies normative legal research with
statutory, conceptual and case approaches, supported by secondary data from the Ministry of
Environment (KLH/BPLH), the Ministry of Health, the World Health Organization and press reports of
five incidents in 2024–2026. In 2025, 135,793 of 146,751 health facilities (92.53%) did not report
medical hazardous waste through the SPEED system, and 130,199.16 of 190,656.61 tonnes of potential
waste (68.29%) were unreported or of unclear management. Criminal liability for unpermitted
hazardous-waste management is reported to have been removed from Law No. 32 of 2009, and if Article
II(5) of Law No. 1 of 2026 applies to the remaining provisions, the maximum fine in Articles 103 and
104 would fall from IDR 3 billion to IDR 50 million (98.33%). None of the five incidents reports a
conviction, and the one sentence found, six months and IDR 1 million, equals 16.67% of the maximum
prison term and 0.03% of the maximum fine. The study concludes that liability should follow the chain
from waste generator to contractor and be combined with reporting and treatment-capacity measures.