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City to recruit neighborhood trash collectors to improve system
Starting 2016, the Jakarta administration will recruit neighborhood garbage collectors to better organize the trash collection system
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tarting 2016, the Jakarta administration will recruit neighborhood garbage collectors to better organize the trash collection system.
Jakarta Governor Basuki 'Ahok' Tjahaja Purnama said with the new system, community unit (RW) and neighborhood unit (RT) leaders may no longer collect money from residents to pay workers for the service.
'Starting next year, we want to recruit the workers who collect trash in neighborhoods. The city administration will pay them according to the provincial minimum wage,' Ahok told reporters at City Hall Tuesday. Currently, the provincial minimum wage in Jakarta is Rp 3.1 million (US$225).
The new recruits will join the Infrastructure and Public Facility Management Agency (PPSU).
Currently, most garbage collectors in neighborhoods are hired and paid for by residents. Their honorarium was collected by RT and RW leaders from residents each month.
This system, according to Ahok, will be replaced by a scheme funded by the city administration.
'Residents must pay waste fees to the city administration through bank transfer to our account with [city-owned lender] Bank DKI,' Ahok said.
Ahok said the new system would be further discussed, as many aspects still needed adjusting. For example, currently, the amount of waste money collected varies from one neighborhood to another.
The planned policy has received a positive reaction from RT and RW heads, the representatives of the two lowest levels of government administration, who believe it would not only create more organized trash collection but also ease their job.
Tamudji, head of RW 02 in North Jakarta's Tugu Selatan subdistrict, said that it was about time for the city to hire workers to pick up garbage from residents' houses.
'It means the RT and RW heads do not have to collect 'trash money' from residents, as the city administration would do the job for us,' Tamudji told The Jakarta Post.
According to him, his residents currently pay Rp 30,000 a month for having their trash collected from their houses. He added that there were eight workers hired to pick up the garbage every day.
He said that the monthly payments were collected by RT or RW heads before being disbursed to the workers.
Tamudji went on to say that despite a lot of PPSU officials in his area, none of them wanted to collect trash from residents' houses, claiming that it was not part of their job description.
'Most of the PPSU officers only clean up garbage from sewers and rivers occasionally; with the new policy they will also get paid to collect trash as well,' he continued.
Andi Zainuddin, head of RT 03 in Tugu Selatan subdistrict, said he hoped the new policy would provide fairer wages for trash collectors in his area. Andi said there was only one trash collector hired by his neighborhood to collect waste from 60 houses every day.
'So with the current monthly fee of Rp 30,000 from each house, he can only get Rp 1.8 million every month for collecting trash seven days a week. I don't believe it is enough to cover his daily needs,' Andi said.
