Why Policies and Community Don't Greet Each Other: A Study of Semarang City Policies and Community Initiatives in Waste Management

ABSTRACT Waste management is increasingly becoming a serious problem in this world, including in Indonesia. Several regions in Indonesia have declared themselves as “waste emergency” areas. Various policies have long been established by the government, on national, provincial, and city/regency level, and the community and other stakeholders also take part in waste management. However, it seems as if there is no connection between government policies and society, so waste management always seems to start from the beginning. Applying qualitative research methods, this study fund that Semarang City had the regulation on waste management since 2012 but the regulation is not enacted based on the community concern on the waste problem; the community activities in waste management are very variable; and the impacts of ineffective program implementation because of the less coordination between government and stakeholders. This study findings underline the importance of community‐based regulation. Otherwise, it impacted in ineffective of implementation of regulation. This study also contributed to the portrait of dynamics of waste management in a city context.