"Nothing Wasted", the market waste composting program by the Danamon Peduli Foundation secured its place among 12 finalists, selected from 900 community development programs worldwide, in the World Challenge 2009.
The World Challenge, organized by BBC World News and Newsweek, is a global competition to find innovative programs in poverty reduction, women's education, environmental management and community economic development.
Voting is done online through the World Challenge's official website, with each reader or viewer limited to one vote. The finalist with the highest tally will be declared the winner and receive a US$20,000 grant.
Representatives of the top three finalists will be invited to The Hague in the Netherlands, for an award ceremony that will be filmed and broadcast as the final episode in the World Challenge series on the BBC World channel and featured in Newsweek's December edition. 2009 marks the fifth annual installment of the World Challenge.
Danamon Peduli Foundation's "Nothing Wasted" is competing with finalists from India, the UK, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Namibia, the US,Thailand, Haiti, Israel and Palestine, Sri Lanka, and Afghanistan.
"Nothing Wasted" is part of the Danamon Peduli Foundation's latest program called "Danamon Go Green", which is aimed at converting traditional market waste into high quality compost to be distributed to farmers, said Risa Bhinekawati, the executive director of Danamon Peduli Foundation.
"The foundation is cooperating with 31 regional administrations to build waste processing systems in traditional markets," she told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.
Risa said she hoped the program would improve the health and hygiene conditions in the regional administrations as well as bring benefits to both vendors in traditional market and farmers.
"We hope that the program also addresses fertilizer scarcity issues and helps improve critical soil conditions," she added.
The program was initiated in July 2007 in Ciputat market in South Tangerang, Banten, followed by similar projects in Bantul, Yogyakarta, and Sragen in Central Java.
By August 2009, the foundation had completed 28 of 31 composting units, converting 442 tons of organic waste into 103 tons of high quality compost every month.
"Everyday, traditional markets produce thousands of kilograms of waste, of which about 70 to 90 percent is organic, making good raw material for high quality compost," Risa said.
In mid-July, One Planet Picture came to Indonesia to fi lm a documentary on "Nothing Wasted", focusing on market composting programs in Bantul and Probolinggo regency in East Java. In Indonesia, traditional markets are pillars of social and economic development for most low-income people.
Indonesian traditional markets, however, have suffered a contraction of 8.1 percent from 2002 to 2006 compared to modern trade, which grew by 31.4 percent over the same period, according to the foundation.
One of the reasons for the decline is the poor hygiene conditions in traditional markets, which is mainly caused by unmanaged waste.
Danamon Peduli Foundation was established on February 17, 2006, by Bank Danamon Indonesia.
Apart from the "Nothing Wasted" program, the foundation other key programs include the revitalization of Indonesian traditional (wet) markets and humanitarian relief programs for victims of natural disasters.
To vote for "Nothing Wasted", readers can log on to www.theworldchallenge. co.uk. The global voting period runs from Sept. 28 to Nov. 13.
Through "Danamon Go Green," regional administrations' waste processing systems are predicted to grow to 100 units by 2013 as more composting units are currently being constructed in Bantul and Grobogan.
"We hope this project can enhance multi-stakeholder partnerships and good governance in the future," said Risa.
It could potentially also brings benefi ts to small and medium enterprises such as compost machine manufacturers, and provides a fertile ground for further research in waste management, she said.
