Ulma Haryanto Jakarta Globe 3 Dec 10;
Jakarta. Behind the row of buildings that line Jalan Cirendeu Raya in South Jakarta, just three kilometers from the upscale residential area of Pondok Indah, trash scavengers live among the piles of garbage that they mine for a living.
The families here eke out a meager existence, with just enough electricity for lights, no television, a worn-out sofa and thin mattresses for their beds.
Their only source of water comes from a donated water pump, while their homes are shacks made from sheets of plywood and corrugated metal.
Their job is a simple if unheralded one: they sort through the trash for items that can be recycled, then burn the rest.
Sidik, 45, and his family moved to Cirendeu with 12 other families from their old haunt in Pondok Pinang, also in South Jakarta, after they were evicted in 2002 to make way for a private school’s new parking lot.
“Most of us used to sort trash for the Jakarta Sanitation Office, but now that we’ve had to move here, we’re on our own,” he says.
“Its slightly better here; we don’t get flooded, but the roof leaks once in a while.”
The scavengers have become the subject of a campaign by the XSProject Foundation, which advocates for their welfare while encouraging greater environmental awareness.
Since 2002, the foundation has been buying the polypropylene bottles and packaging collected by the scavengers, and selling them to plastics producers overseas who are looking for cheap, recyclable raw material.
Retno Hapsari says the project helps lift the scavengers out of poverty and cuts down on the amount of waste incinerated.
“There are 80,000 tons of polypropylene packaging produced in Indonesia per year, and in Jakarta alone there are approximately 450,000 trash scavengers,” she says.
“They need to sift through all the waste to find the 21 types of garbage that can be reused.”
“Not so many people realize that scavengers play an important role in neighborhood sanitation,” she adds.
“They’re the ones who take our waste and sort it so that it can be recycled. Yet most of them live in poverty.”
Retno says that before the XSProject Foundation became involved, polypropylene and other plastic waste would simply be incinerated. Now, the foundation buys it up by the ton.
Najat, the foundation’s financial officer, says most of it is sold to buyers in Singapore, Australia, Greece, the United States and the Netherlands.
“We purchase the materials from the scavengers at well above the market price,” she says, adding the foundation pays Rp 6,500 per kilogram of polypropylene, and Rp 3,500 if it needs to be cleaned up.
Sidik says the families in Cirendeu can make a combined Rp 35,000 to Rp 100,000 ($4 to $11) a day. They collect all their trash in the Pondok Indah and Lebak Bulus areas, then bring it back to their commune.
Those who don’t go out scavenging stay back to sort out the garbage. They separate cardboard boxes, glass, metal and plastic items, and sell them to a variety of buyers, including recycling companies and organizations like the XSProject Foundation.
Linda, 27, is new to the community, having just moved here seven months ago from Cikarang in Bekasi.
“Here the women usually stay at home while the men scavenge,” she says.
She adds the work isn’t all just collecting and sorting. In October, they began making the cardboard trumpets popular among New Year’s Eve revelers.
All the materials for the trumpets come from the scavenged trash: plastic bottles for the mouthpiece and cardboard boxes for the tubes.
“Nobody taught us how to do it,” Linda says. “We saw other people making the trumpets and we tried it ourselves.”
There are also young children among the families here, most of whom face the prospect of following in their parents’ footsteps later in life.
But one parent, Sastro, 48, says he wants to break the cycle.
“My oldest son is now studying at a vocational school,” he says.
“It’s not easy to afford the fees, but I’m determined that my children will have a better life than me.”
