TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Communities, the new force in town
Many residents of Jakarta would agree that the capital does not offer much in the way of beautiful scenery - but is certainly rich in trash, which is strewn through public parks, rivers and streets
Change Size
Many residents of Jakarta would agree that the capital does not offer much in the way of beautiful scenery - but is certainly rich in trash, which is strewn through public parks, rivers and streets.
This trash, whether on the street or in a dump or bin, is typically a mix of organic waste and nonorganic waste, such as plastics, which take 200 to 1,000 years to decompose.
Our nonenvironmentally friendly habit of using plastic bags - and an awful lot of them - means the volume of plastic waste has risen in recent years, with there now being an estimated 700 tons of plastic waste sitting around in Jakarta alone, half of which remains untreated. Some plastic household waste is disposed of by burning, which produces toxic fumes.
Plastics are just one part of the mountainous problem. Every day, Jakarta, with its 10 million residents, produces about 27,000 cubic meters, or 6,000 tons, of waste - that's enough to fill more than 10 Olympic-size swimming pools. About 60 percent of this is household trash.
The daily volume of garbage could reach 6,894 tons per day by 2010 and 8,210 tons per day by 2025, according to estimates by the Jakarta Sanitation Agency.
At the moment, all that rubbish ends up at the Bantar Gebang dump in neighboring Bekasi, east of the capital.
But even though environmental campaigns are gaining momentum across the globe, it seems the city administration is not getting caught up in the movement and appears to have no solution for dealing with Jakarta's mountain of waste.
While several local communities are starting to take the initiative to tackle their own waste management through a 3R (reduce, reuse and recycle) approach, the sanitation agency plans to use its funding from the 2009 budget to pay for a garbage truck.
Over the past few years, a few communities have begun "green" initiatives, but in 2008, the number and intensity of local community waste management projects increased significantly.
And not without results: According to Eko Bharuna Subroto of the sanitation agency, community-driven waste management programs have helped reduce the amount of garbage sent to the Bantar Gebang dump by as much as 8 percentbetween 450 and 500 tons per day.
With help from groups that focus on environmental conservation and protection, local residents have been learning how to manage their waste, through simple activities such as separating organic and nonorganic waste, composting and creating biopores.
Jakarta Green Monster (JGM), an NGO that works for the protection of Jakarta's wetlands, has encouraged 1,500 residents in Kapuk Muara, North Jakarta, to separate their garbage and motivated them to start converting plastic waste into useful items such as bags and hats.
About 15 women in the area have starting creatively arranging and stitching together pieces of plastic, and then sewing this "fabric" into attractive handbags that are a far cry from the shreds of plastic waste littering the city.
But educating local residents about the importance of waste management is not an easy task, says Hendra Aquan, a volunteer at JGM.
"It is really hard to get through to people and to lead this change in their behavior. First we had to get on side some leaders in the area to help promote environmental issues," Hendra said.
Such volunteer groups are not entirely alone in their efforts to tackle the mountains of waste: Several private companies sponsor green initiatives as part of their corporate social responsibility programs.
Residents in Cipinang Melayu, East Jakarta, and Pasar Minggu in South Jakarta, for instance, run a small recycling business initiated by Unilever Indonesia Foundation as part of its Jakarta Green and Clean program.
Fashionistas also have their own way of demonstrating their concerns about the environment, with stylish and sustainable clothes coming out of the domestic fashion industry.
Five young designers, Priyo Oktaviano, Barli Asmara, Ade Sagi, Ichwan Thoha and Rusli Tjohnardi, have all created outfits made from environmentally friendly fabrics, such as cotton, on display at the Fashion First boutique in Senayan City Mall, South Jakarta.
The boutique, which is associated with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Indonesia, chose not to hold a live fashion show in order to cut down on energy use. Instead, it uploaded a slide show of its collection for public viewing on YouTube.
But this burgeoning brand of people power goes beyond environmental issues.
With high spirits and boundless energy, a number of cultural groups, such as Sahabat Museum and Komunitas Historia, are throwing themselves into preserving the city's culture and history.
They frequently hold events in the Old Town area to encourage residents and the administration to help protect and develop the long-neglected historical heart of the city.
After going it alone for some time (that is, with no government support), these groups have finally begun to attract some of the administration's attentionit finally launched the troubled Old Town Revitalization project in late 2007, marking the beginning of development of the area.
It seems like the administration is missing the boat on almost every issue, including transportation.
When the state-owned railway operator PT Kereta Api was still only talking about the KRL Care Center, its information and customer help service launched in April 2008, train-loving members of community group KRL Mania were taking the lead by handing out information about train routes and schedules themselves.
It was the efforts of KRL Mania and other railway support groups, such as the Indonesian Railway Preservation and Society (IRPS), Masyarakat Pecinta Kereta Api or Maska (Train Lovers Society) and Komunitas Pecinta Kereta Api or Kompak (Train Lovers Community), that drove the administration to revive the old railway track connecting Kota in West Jakarta and Tanjung Priok in North Jakarta.
Gumilar Rusliwa Somantri, an urban sociologist, said the administration should fully support the communities in their activities.
He said the mushrooming of community initiatives, such as the green movements, was a sign that people's awareness of wider issues had increased.
"They are now more aware of the importance of conserving and protecting the environment," Gumilar said.
