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n the first two weeks of its implementation, the Friday Gerakan Pungut Sampah (trash pick-up movement) has gained little attention from Jakarta residents, some of whom expressed reluctance to take part.

Komariah, a 38-year-old resident of Kota Bambu Utara in West Jakarta, said she had never heard about the program at all, which was officially launched by Governor Basuki '€œAhok'€ Tjahaja Purnama on Nov. 28.

'€œFriday morning is the time for aerobics for me and other women around here,'€ she said while waiting for the instructor to prepare the sound system at the gym.

Komariah said the time was a bit inappropriate for housewives like her, since '€œ6:30 a.m. is the time when I am busy preparing breakfast for my son and husband before they go to school and the office,'€ she said.

The stay-at-home mother said she supported the movement, but thought it was a bit pointless. '€œI clean my house and surroundings every day. We also already have to join a clean-up program in our neighborhood once a month on a Sunday,'€ she said.

Komariah said she wanted to participate in the movement, but the lack of trash bins outside her home would become a problem.

'€œIt will be bothersome if we have to bring a plastic bag for the garbage,'€ she said.

Komariah said most residents were also reluctant to pick up the trash because it was dirty.

Eko Basuki, 56, concurred and said that an appeal voiced by the movement would not automatically encourage residents to start picking up trash in their environs.

'€œIt [the movement] will find it hard to gain support from people at the grass roots level,'€ he said.

Eko said that most people were reluctant to clean their neighborhoods, let alone other places.

'€œWhen they pay garbage collectors, they think that it is not their job anymore,'€ he said.

Eko, who owned a boarding house, said he frequently cleaned his surroundings and sorted out his garbage on his own initiative.

'€œI learned that scavengers came to my house every morning to collect garbage like plastic bottles and papers that they can sell. So, I sort the garbage out to ease their work,'€ he said while giving a bucket of plastic bottles to an old scavenger.

Eko said that although he had been sorting out his garbage for years, he could not yet encourage his neighbors to do the same thing.

Jakarta, a city of 10 million people, produces at least 6,000 tons of domestic waste daily. The lack of public awareness, mainly from city officials, has made garbage a major problem in the capital.

Garbage dumped in rivers and sewer systems causes water inundations and floods and triggers health problems.

Inspired by Bandung, the city administration initiated the trash-collecting movement with the hope, now fading, that the public would become more aware of sanitation in their surrounding areas.

The movement is obligatory for civil servants in the city while the public is expected to follow suit.

However, lack of publication and the tardy process of issuing the gubernatorial instruction as the legal basis of the movement has halted the pace of the program'€™s familiarization.

Sanitation Agency head Saptastri Ediningtyas said the movement'€™s familiarization would take time. '€œWe have disseminated information about the movement to mayors in all municipalities, but they might not have spread the message yet,'€ she said.