Found: Collecting recyclables gives this man from parched Madura employment and community.

Pak Haji Mohamed Ishaq wanders out of his bedroom, scratching his huge belly and rubbing sleep from his eyes. He has just woken from a siesta and now sits surrounded by the wealth he has grown over the past couple of decades. This wealth has carried him on the haj to Mecca, fed his family and today he employs around 50 workers; and it’s all built on rubbish.

Chickens and small children play on piles of waste cardboard. Thousands of aluminum soda cans are strewn in groups on the dirt floor of Mohamed’s massive rubbish storage shed on the outskirts of Gianyar city. Nearby, workers are loading bits of wire, metal scraps and mountains of plastic waste into trucks bound for the recycling plant in Surabaya.

Arriving at this point in his life has been a long road for Mohamed. “I came to Bali back in 1990 from Madura. I had a bicycle and I rode around collecting trash to be recycled. These days I gather trash
from 50 collectors — they all have motor scooters now. I buy from them and I then sell it on to Surabaya. I pay my collectors Rp 10,000 [US$1] for a kilo of aluminum cans and I sell that to Surabaya at Rp 12,000 a kilo. When I first came to Bali I worked collecting trash and I still do it — I really enjoy my work, not because it makes me rich, but it’s my calling from God,” says Mohamed with a grin that illuminates his face with joy.

Mohamed lives on-site with recyclable waste spilling into every crevice, stacked high to the roof. He lives in a sea of waste and loves it.

Watchful: Recyclables collector Haji Mohamed Ishaq keeps an eye on his trash treasure.

“This trash has earned me the money to go on the haj. I live here amid the rubbish because it’s my business. I choose to live here with what people throw away because yes, I love it,” says Mohamed, who believes the work he and his team of scavengers does helps clear some of the rubbish that is currently drowning much of Bali.

Mohamed is not alone on this large plot of land given over as a recycling collection point. A few steps away is the collection point and home of Pak Dowi and his family. Also from Madura, Dowi says he came to Bali 17 years ago with his wife and two small children.

“There was no work in Madura. I worked in Denpasar for a while selling motorcycle spare parts, but I couldn’t make a living that would feed my family, so I opened this rubbish stand in Gianyar. Like Haji I buy and sell paper, aluminium cans, plastic, everything really, but I am much smaller than Haji — he is the big boss,” says Dowi, who also lives on-site, chosing this place because “It is nice, friendly, safe and easy. We all love it here.”

Bits and pieces: The sea of scrap feeds and schools families.

His plump daughter, 26-year-old Yayuk, is dressed in a bright orange headscarf and black slacks and shirt. Like her father, she loves living at the recycling plant and is raising her own family here. She has established a small kiosk where children of this village built on rubbish shop for snacks and cold drinks and their parents can sit and chat over coffee in the evenings.

Yayuk laughs easily and often in this village her family has helped create out of nothing. “It’s nice for families here. There are four families and we all get on. We laugh a lot and don’t worry about things. My husband also works here. There was no work in Madura, but here we can make a real life for ourselves,” says Yayuk.

Her younger brother, 17-year-old Saiful, is in his final years of high school. This thoughtful young man says he has never felt a sense of inferiority growing up in a rubbish dump. “Yes, I love it here because I have always been here,” says Saiful.

When asked if he is teased at school about his home, he is direct and clear. “Where I live is not important. We have work and there is no theft and no corruption,” says Saiful, who adds he is deeply proud of his parents.

“They came from Madura alone with two small children. There was no one to help them. Madura is dry and it is tough. There is no work, so I think for my parents to have the courage to go so far to build a new life is something to be admired,” says Saiful, who also believes the work of scavengers is vitally important for Bali’s environment.

“Mum and Dad’s work is good for the environment. If we didn’t have people collecting and sending this trash for recycling, can you imagine how much more trash would be in Bali? There is so much trash in Bali’s rivers, everywhere, but because we collect and recycle, the rubbish is reduced. I believe our work is really important and when I finish school, I want to join Dad and grow the recycling business,” says Saiful, who with these dozens of scavengers and collectors is easing — at least a little bit — Bali’s trash problem.

— Photos By J.B. Djwan