PCBs have been prohibited since the government signed the POPs agreement in Stockholm, 2001. This prohibition could be found in Governmental Regulation No. 74 on the Treatment of Hazardous and Toxic Materials.

In that Governmental Regulation,
it is said that PCBs are included in Hazardous and Toxic Materials that are prohibited to use. As they are prohibited, they cannot be used, produced, distributed, and/or imported.

* Thus, PCBs import/export start
to be prohibited since 2001.

But Governmental Regulation No. 74/2001 is not adequate to regulate PCBs issues, as it is still too general. It is necessary to have a regulation that regulates PCBs specifically, including the explanation on punishment or sanction to business actors or those who produce or treat PCBs, import/export and use PCBs. It is also necessary that there is an explication on what should be done by the community if they know that there are PCBs or PCB wastes in the products or in the surrounding environment.

Regulation on PCBs is not yet totally applied by the government. Even, there are still many business actors and the community who do not know about the existence of that governmental regulation. Due that the government is not strict, the regulation does not run well.

• Until now, there is no data on the quantity of PCBs that have been produced, the quantity and location of the utilization of equipment containing PCBs.
  
• No data on PCBs that are imported/exported.
  
• No data on common placement of capacitor containing PCBs or non-PCBs capacitor
  
• No data on the quantity of PCBs wastes
  
• No data on the facility of treatment to eliminate PCBs
  toxic materials.
  
• It is not known yet the quantity of PCBs treatment facility that exist in Indonesia.
  

@ There is no data on PCBs that can be treated each year.

@ The government does not have annual goal or plan to treat PCBs problems

Methods that are usually used to eliminate toxic materials are stabilization, solidification, incineration, landfill, and neutralization.

The effeciency of cremation, destruction and eradication for PCBs is 99.9999%. There is no data on treated PCBs until now (based on the Governmental Regulation No. 19/1994).

Nowadays, the Indonesian Government, represented by the Ministry of Environment, conducted a survey to make an inventory of factories that use PCBs, their treatment and the quantity of PCBs that are produced

Right now the government doesn't have plan yet to treat PCB wastes to be less dangerous wastes, because it needs big money (high cost), and it's impossible to do it in near future, because the Government have very limited fund.

So far, Indonesian community still cares and is interested with the information related to food security and safety and their environment. It is proven by quick response to each news or issues observed by YLKI or other NGOs like Pesticide, Dioxin, and other toxic materials.

But, the obstacles are, there is no adequate data or information to explain to the community, and there is no strict action from the government on business actors or those who violate regulation.

However, for PCBs, until now YLKI only collects informations on PCBs and that is published by Warta Konsumen magazine (YLKI's magazine).