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Post-election upcycling movements turn 'campaign waste' into clothing, accessories
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Public order officials take down a campaign banner promoting a legislative candidate in Menteng, Jakarta, on Sunday. All campaign materials across the country are being taken down during a cooling-off period that starts on Sunday, April 15. (JP/Wendra Ajistyatama)
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s the campaign period for the 2019 general election ended on April 14 and city officials took down campaign materials worth billions of rupiah around the city, one question arose: What would happen to this waste?
The General Elections Commission (KPU) had distributed Rp 400 billion (US$28.3 million) alone to subsidize the campaign materials of legislative candidates.
Since the Jakarta administration and the government had yet to come up with specific measures to manage the discarded campaign materials, some have stepped up to upcycle the “campaign waste” into salable products.
Among these is Harits “Tejyet” Alfadri Dewanto, a young artist who studied visual communication design in 2012.
A picture of a woman wearing one of his first creations – a jacket crafted from political party flags – went viral. He cut out the parties’ logos and sewed them together into a colorful jacket.
“I thought that the campaign flags, banners and billboards we saw in public spaces during the campaign period were just too much,” Tejyet told The Jakarta Post, calling the materials "visual waste".
