Giving purpose to your trash

The Jakarta Post | Tue, 07/29/2008 2:42 PM 

Landfills are struggling to keep up with the amount of trash coming out of Jakarta. Remember the scavengers who were killed in a landfill when a mountain of trash collapsed on them? The soil upon which these landfills rest is entirely polluted, making it poisonous and barren, unable to sustain life.Jakarta also seems to lack any serious waste management system. I have seen people treat our city as nothing more than a big wastebasket, throwing trash wherever they please. This trash, in turn, clogs drains and rivers, worsening floods and polluting water. In several places in Jakarta, people no longer use groundwater because it is just too polluted.

No amount of tree planting, biking to work or using of alternative energy sources is going to alleviate this problem—a problem so big that one day we might just be engulfed by a tsunami of trash. So, if other things are negotiable, managing our waste isn't.

One way to manage waste is by sorting it into different categories and treating each one accordingly. Sorting and recycling waste also allows us not to feel frustrated when the garbage collector fails to turn up. It also reduces the need for landfills and the number of trips that garbage trucks must make to the landfill. This means less fuel used and less pollution released, minimizing our carbon footprint in the process.

But we cannot just sit and wait for this to happen. Here are some ways to start (or re-start) your waste sorting project:

1. Separate organic waste (foodstuff, leaves, etc) from reusables/recyclables (e.g. plastic bottles, glass, milk cartons, aluminum cans). Keep the recyclables separate, clean and dry. I use a large container to keep them all in one place.

2. Trash you cannot reuse can be given to a passing pemulung or your community garbage collector. They’ll be happy to receive waste that is clean and not yet degraded. But in my experience, not all garbage collectors and pemulung care for the same things. One pemulung who sometimes passes through our small side street prefers plastic mineral water cups or bottles and not much else. Another prefers newspapers (no glossies, please, although he'll take printer paper). So it's best to check with them about what they'd like to have and what would be better to palm off on others.

3. Your waste collectors’ preferences should help you categorize your recyclables. For example, at home I have a separate container for plastic cups and bottles, as well as another to keep the newspapers dry.

Batteries are considered hazardous waste and should not be disposed of carelessly. Right now, there are no battery recycling facilities or organizations here in Indonesia. Nevertheless, you can collect them in a clean and dry container and return them to the manufacturers. You can also minimize battery waste by using rechargeable batteries. But remember, once they can no longer be used, rechargeable batteries should be treated as typical dead batteries since they retain their hazardous chemical properties.

4. For the rest of the recyclables (or if you can’t find any pemulung) here are some recycling centers or organizations that are willing to take the items off your hands. Not only do they collect waste, they also create beautiful and useful products that they sell to help fund their programs. Contact them to find out about their projects, pick-up points, pick-up days or how you can deliver your waste to them:

Perkumpulan Hijau (Gamulya, 08158019813, or kodokyanghijau@gmail.com): Perkumpulan Hijau will take most of your dry recyclables (plastic, paper, etc). They do collection runs every Friday and some Saturdays. Call ahead to arrange pick up.

Pak Warno (0818982834) collects plastic products, especially from around Kelapa Gading.

Pak Surani (021 46821978) collects Styrofoam waste, although we do encourage you to find alternatives to Styrofoam because it is considered a harmful substance.

Used cooking oil can be collected and delivered to various biodiesel fuel projects. Transpakuan inBogor is one example. Contact Jelantah Project (ask for Ariawiyana, 085697738808) or Pak Hadim Hanafie (08161126264) for more information. By the way, if you like gardening, used cooking oil is a good mulch mixture. It is exceptionally useful to keep weeds at bay. Brush or roll your used cooking oil (you can strain it through a cloth to clear out the impurities) over some used newspaper and place at the bottom of your mulch.

5. You can also start an art project or two with those recyclables. Over several weekends, I’ve made many things out of shampoo and body lotion bottles. The bottles are surprisingly versatile and quite easy to cut out and shape into various pretty trinkets. So far I’ve managed to make bracelets, hair scrunchies, bookmarks and coasters. My nieces cut colorful magazine pages to size, to use as origami paper. Organizations like Gropesh (contact Dieng, 08176877911) also arrange recyclable arts and crafts training for schools and the public. Call ahead if you would like to book a training session.

Finally, ask your neighbors to join in the recycling if they haven’t already. Of course, some of them may be cool to the idea at first, but plug along and your determination will eventually influence them. If they don’t join in immediately, do the sorting for them. I did this with one of my neighbors. I asked for their waste (mostly plastic bottles, detergent and instant food packages, and compostable stuff), then I showed them that the pemulung really do appreciate cleaner waste, and I showed them my compost bin and the art things I made. It took quite a while, but they finally saw the benefits and have started their own waste-sorting effort.

Once you’ve established a collective awareness, sorting waste becomes even easier. A few places, most notably Banjarsari, a small community off Jl. Fatmawati in South Jakarta, have successfully implemented such waste management practices. They have set up sorting bins in public spaces, built a composting station, started a community garden using the compost they have produced and even have an art project for all ages (and an economically fulfilling one at that).

So, there you have it: sorting waste, a small act that goes a long way.

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