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.
Waste management education a must for city
Stylish trash: Tumisih (right) shows her handmade bags made from plastic waste in her neighborhood in Cakung, East Jakarta
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Stylish trash: Tumisih (right) shows her handmade bags made from plastic waste in her neighborhood in Cakung, East Jakarta. She depends on her daughter to sell the bags on the latterâs Facebook account due to the limited market for recycled products. (JP/Indah Setiawati) (right) shows her handmade bags made from plastic waste in her neighborhood in Cakung, East Jakarta. She depends on her daughter to sell the bags on the latterâs Facebook account due to the limited market for recycled products. (JP/Indah Setiawati)
S
span class="caption" style="width: 510px;">Stylish trash: Tumisih (right) shows her handmade bags made from plastic waste in her neighborhood in Cakung, East Jakarta. She depends on her daughter to sell the bags on the latter's Facebook account due to the limited market for recycled products. (JP/Indah Setiawati)
Tumisih looked skeptical when she was told that a waste management system in which organic and non-organic garbage would be separated, was going to be implemented in her community.
The middle-aged housewife who lives in a densely populated neighborhood of Cakung, East Jakarta, said everyone in her neighborhood was accustomed to throwing all their trash into one plastic bag before disposing of it in a nearby dump.
'It may be difficult for housewives here to embrace this new habit. They need to be continuously reminded,' she told The Jakarta Post on Friday.
Tumisih said that over the past two years, she had turned used plastic sachets into purses and bags, which were then sold for between Rp 15,000 (US$1.53) and Rp 150,000.
'This business remains small because marketing is hard. Many people consider recycled products trash,' she said.
Lila Paramita, who lives in an apartment in Kalibata, South Jakarta, said that although her apartment building did not regulate waste separation, she thought it was a good idea.
'It [the separation] is actually a good idea because I think it is gross when trash is mixed,' said the employee of a private company.
The new city bylaw on waste management, which replaced Bylaw No. 5/1988, specifies a number of new responsibilities for residents, neighborhoods, companies and the administration as well as fines for those who do not comply.
Article 12 of the new bylaw requires residents to separate their organic and non-organic waste. Those who fail to do so will be fined by the community unit (RW). Meanwhile, managements of housing, commercial, industrial and special areas, must a provide waste management facility or they will be fined between Rp 10 million (US$1004) and Rp 50 million as regulated by Article 127.
Spatial planning expert Nirwono Joga said it would be unfair to implement all those sanctions without properly assisting in the waste management efforts.
'The Sanitation Agency should find out which buildings do not have waste management facilities yet and then help them manage their garbage,' he said.
He said that the bylaw would require a massive campaign to succeed, as changing the paradigm would be more effective than merely penalizing people.
'Children, for example, should be given good examples in school and through their parents on how to handle trash. If the familiarization is done properly, good waste management will be part of our culture in the next five to 10 years,' he told the Post.
Nirwono said applying the bylaw might be challenging as many Jakartans were not familiar with waste management. 'To date, I still see people littering on the streets,' he said.
Before implementing the bylaw, he said the agency should fix problems within itself by improving its human resources and garbage trucks.
Sanitation Agency head Unu Nurdin said that the agency would lead the dissemination of information on the new bylaw in the final quarter of the year. In the meantime, it would focus on procurement of new garbage trucks and building more temporary dumps.
