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Banking on the environment
Extraordinary bank: Residents bring their trash to a “bank” in Bantul, Yogyakarta
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Extraordinary bank: Residents bring their trash to a “bank” in Bantul, Yogyakarta. They can collect their saving every three months. JP/Suherdjoko
Prayitno, a middle-aged man, braved the drizzle as he carried a sack of papers in his left hand and a TV antenna cardboard box in his right.
It was 8:30 on a Friday night when he reached his destination, where he was warmly welcomed by three teenagers, Galuh Ari Sutrisna, Panji Dewa Saputra, and Tania.
The students are "bank tellers", and Prayitno is one of their customers.
But what kind of bank is open at night?
A very unusual bank - indeed the only one of its kind in the country. Located in Bandegan hamlet, Bantul village in Yogyakarta's Sleman regency, it is called Bank Sampah Gemah Ripah or Prosperous Trash Bank. As the name suggests, its customers do not come to deposit cash, but to hand over recyclable trash - paper, plastic, metal, cardboard and styrofoam waste.
The students diligently weighed the waste that Prayitno, and Galuh neatly made a note of Prayitno's deposit in a book, called a bank savings book.
The trash bank is the brainchild of Bambang Suwirda, a lecturer at the School of Public Health at the Health Polytechnics Institute in Yogyakarta.
"I want people to be aware about the importance of waste management," he told The Jakarta Post. "*The trash bank's* main purpose is to create a clean environment, which will obviously lead to a healthy environment. Another impact is that the waste can have commercial value."
So he launched an environmental campaign, describing the importance of waste management during arisan, a traditional social gathering, involving men and women from hamlets in his village. It took him a long time to convey his message because the gathering was held only once a month.
"I asked the residents to become clients of the Trash Bank. They initially made jokes about the idea, but later they accepted it," Bambang said. "A resident living on the main street even allowed us to use his house as the bank office."
Even though it is called a bank, there is no cash box or calculator as in more conventional banks. Instead, the trash bank has a pile of sacks to hold the waste, a warehouse to store the trash, a scale and a trash-chopping machine.
The trash bank is open only from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Each customer has a sack with his or her name on it to bring in the waste.
Daryono and Sumardiyanto were two other customers who handed over paper waste that night.
"We note precisely the weight *of the deposit*," said Galuh, who volunteers for the project. "Customers have their own bank account and might bring different kinds of waste."
The amount brought to the bank varies, usually between three to 10 kilograms.
Prayitno, a civil servant, said he became a customer because he wanted to teach his children to care about the environment. Even though he can withdraw cash in exchange for his trash every month, he prefers to get the money once every three months.
"Frankly speaking, it is not much," he said of the amount he might earn. "What's important is the spirit of loving the environment so that it is free from garbage, and to manage *the waste* so it can be useful."
The bank's activities are like those of a company; the volunteers collect the waste and sell it to a broker or use it to make handicrafts. Its organizational structure is also like that of a bank, with a director, tellers, waste processing manager, marketing officers and staff in charge of handicraft making.
"There are 10 people working for this Trash Bank. No one is paid. We really work voluntarily. Our intention is to create healthy environment, not to make money. This is social work," said the bank's director, Panut Susanto.
Trash Bank was established in June 2008. In the past nine months, it has become popular, attracting increasing numbers of customers. It now has at least 65 customers from Bantul and from other villages in the same regency.
Regularly, when the warehouse is full, brokers come to buy the waste at various prices. The revenue goes into the customers' accounts.
"We don't buy the waste. We only collect it. It is the buyers who decide the price," Panut said. "Fifteen percent of sales revenue is taken for the Trash Bank. The customers don't mind. The money is not to pay the *employees', but to finance the activities such as by buying books and scales, photocopying and other things."
The buyers usually set the price of newspapers at between Rp 800 and Rp 1,000 per kilogram. Plastic waste is about Rp 250 a kilogram while white paper can reach Rp 2,400. A large ketchup bottle fetches Rp 100 and a syrup bottle Rp 50; the plastic packaging from snacks and detergent gets Rp 15 per piece.
Volunteers at Trash Bank do not sell the styrofoam. Rather, they mix it with sand and cement to create flagpole bases. They also make handicrafts such as wallets, handbags and notebook bags from snack and detergent plastic packaging, selling the finished products for between Rp 10,000 and Rp 45,000 each. "We create the designs ourselves," said Bambang.
News about Bank Trash has spread across the country. "The Palu, Sulawesi, administration made a comparison study here. I was also invited by the Pekalongan city administration to explain about this Trash Bank," Bambang said.
He underlined the basic "3R" principles of trash management: recycle, reuse, and reduce.
Housewives Pasrini and Isimiati, who work as volunteers at the bank, are happy to lend a hand. "This is also a learning forum for us. It is held in the afternoon, so it does not disturb our housework," Ismiati said. "Here we can learn to make various kinds of handicrafts from the waste. It is quite interesting."
The Trash Bank also serves its customers with saving and credit activities. It has no credit analyst and runs the business based on trust. But so far, there has been no bad credit. Most customers choose withdraw their money before the Idul Fitri holidays, resulting in a bank rush.
