Toxic tofu? How plastic waste from the West fuels food factories in Indonesia, The Guardian

By Michael Neilson in Tropodo, East Java, for The Guardian, Sat 10 May 2025

Plastic waste from Australia, New Zealand, Japan, France, the US and Britain is being used to fuel tofu production in Indonesia, the Guardian has learned.

Five factory owners in an industrial village in East Java, and one environmental organisation told the Guardian that imported plastic is burned daily to fuel furnaces in factories that produce tofu, prompting concern about serious health impacts.

Each day about 60 tofu factories in Tropodo fire up their boilers and fryers and then feed them with a combination of plastic waste, wood and coconut husks, producing about 60 tonnes of tofu that is distributed in the region, including to Indonesia’s second-largest city Surabaya. The tofu is not sold outside Indonesia….

Read the whole story https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/may/10/tofu-plastic-indonesia

A tofu factory worker adds plastic to a furnace at a tofu factory that uses plastic waste as fuel in Tropodo, Sidoarjo, East Java, Wednesday (11/20/2019). Tofu factories in the area use plastic waste as fuel because it is cheaper than wood, even though the smoke from burning plastic waste produces dioxin which can poison humans, plants, animals and pollute the air. ANTARA FOTO/Zabur Karuru/foc.

Smoke billows from a tofu factory chimney using plastic waste as fuel in Tropodo, Sidoarjo, East Java, Wednesday (11/20/2019). Tofu factories in the area use plastic waste as a fuel because it is cheaper, even though the smoke from burning plastic waste produces dioxin which can poison humans, plants, animals and pollute the air. ANTARA FOTO/Zabur Karuru/foc.

Workers complete the final stage of making tofu at a tofu factories that uses plastic waste as a fuel in Tropodo, Sidoarjo, East Java, Wednesday (11/20/2019). Tofu factories in the area use plastic waste as fuel because it is cheaper even though the smoke from burning plastic waste produces dioxin which can poison humans, plants, animals and pollute the air. ANTARA FOTO/Zabur Karuru/foc.

In related news:

• https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-12-04/chinese-executive-named-suspect-in-indonesian-radiation-case
• https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-11-12/us-returns-radiation-contaminated-footwear-to-indonesia
• Dilemma of Home Tofu Businesses Using Plastic Waste as Fuel by Petrus Riski in Sidoarjo, March 19, 2023
• Ministry of Environment Inspects Tofu Factory in Tropodo Krian, Calls On Businesses Not to Use Plastic Waste Fuel Monday, May 30, 2022
• Tropodo Village Residents Have To Put Up With Imported Plastic Smoke, Nov 27, 2019
• Tropodo Village Income Potential, Tropodo Village Official Website, Kec. Krian Kab. Sidoarjo Prov. Jawa Timur, Apr 30, 2014
• https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-10-09/indonesia-says-no-to-scrap-metal-after-contaminated-prawn-affair