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Jakarta Post

Sorting trash before collection to improve waste management

Every morning since February 1980, Udin Samsudin, 62, has been collecting garbage dumped by residents of community unit (RW) 09 in Sukaluyu subdistrict, Cibeunying Kaler district, Bandung

Arya Dipa (The Jakarta Post)
Mon, August 19, 2019

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Sorting trash before collection to improve waste management

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span>Every morning since February 1980, Udin Samsudin, 62, has been collecting garbage dumped by residents of community unit (RW) 09 in Sukaluyu subdistrict, Cibeunying Kaler district, Bandung. He starts at 6 a.m. with his handcart, going from door to door to gather household waste.

Udin is in charge of collecting waste from more than 400 houses in RW09. The father of five very rarely uses a mask to protect himself from garbage gas hazardous to human health.

“I wear a mask whenever somebody gives me some until they’re used up,” said Udin while pushing his cart along narrow alleyways.

After working with garbage for such a long time, Udin felt its impact only around December 2017, when he was treated at the Bandung City General Hospital for two weeks, followed by another two weeks of home care.

“At first, I had a headache and vomited. I was X-rayed at the hospital, and the doctor said there was a clot in my head,” said Udin. The foul and poisonous air he had inhaled daily was suspected of causing the clot. “Now it’s better, not smelly,” he added.

To make his job easier, Udin has asked the residents to sort out their garbage before discarding it. Household waste generally comprises food scraps, food or beverage containers, paper or cardboard, used sanitary napkins, diapers and batteries. Organic waste is put into a bucket in Udin’s cart. “If mixed with the other trash, it emits a stench,” said Udin, who works with two other collectors in the neighborhood.

Garbage sorting in this area only began in 2017. RW09 head Iwan Poernawan acknowledged the challenges faced, as it had taken time to convince residents of the need to separate their waste at home, and to change collectors’ practice of heaping up all waste in one cart and sending it to the intermediary dumpsite (TPS).

Sorting garbage before disposal is related to the selection of RW09 as one of several so-called zero-waste zones in Bandung. In the process, residents are assisted by the Bioscience and Biotechnology Development Foundation (YPBB), which focuses on sustainable environmental management, and the Bandung Environment and Sanitation Agency.

Organic waste will be used as compost. In RW09, composting techniques range from the use of bamboo huts, brick enclosures and composter drums to bio-digesters. Such facilities are found in five neighborhood units (RT). “Bio-digesters produce gas and liquid fertilizer,” said Iwan. A bio digester with a capacity of 15 kilograms of organic waste can produce enough gas for a stove for two hours.

In another neighborhood, Haryadi Priyatna, the head of RW07 in Neglasari subdistrict, Cibeunying Kaler district, has had to go around with the garbage collectors to ascertain local residents’ readiness to sort out their waste.

“I was touring after sending circulars to residents on waste sorting. I gave them a month’s time before inspecting the implementation,” said 61-year-old Haryadi.

Accompanying garbage collectors for a month, Haryadi explained the importance of waste-sorting to residents, many of whom expressed displeasure that they had to do another chore despite paying a Rp 50,000 (US$3.5) monthly garbage fee. “They also had questions about the containers for sorting garbage. I told them they could use buckets, paint cans or any other vessels,” Haryadi said.

Haryadi warned residents that, unless they sorted their waste no later than three months after receiving the circular, the garbage collectors would no longer visit their homes. Entis Sutisna, 26, a collector in RW07, confirmed this. Entis reminded residents of the need to sort their waste so frequently that RW07 dwellers have nicknamed the bachelor “Mister Clean”.

Originally, he could not believe the garbage-reduction effect of waste sorting. So Entis also took part in the garbage-weighing process, along with Fauzi Rahman, a YPBB assistant in RW07, from January to February 2018.

For 10 days, they were sorting out diverse types of waste from six different places, which had been gathered by Entis from residents’ homes from 6:30 to 9:30 a.m.

The 10-day weighing showed that the daily amount of waste from RW07 ranged from 244 to 335 kg. From the sorting, Entis calculated estimated the organic waste fit for composting at 30 to 60 kg. RW07’s average waste accumulation reached 287.7 kg daily, of which 40.5 kg could be composted, 5.7 kg could be resold by collectors and 241.5 kg was sent to the TPS before and from there to the final dumpsite (TPA).

A 2017 study for a master plan for waste handling in Bandung recorded the garbage volume in the city with a population of around 2.6 million at 1,500 tons per day. Divided by the number of people, each citizen in Bandung produced 0.6 kg daily. City-owned sanitation company PD Kebersihan Bandung director Gungun Saptari gave a simple illustration of the waste buildup. “The waste would fill an entire soccer field to a height of 75 centimeters in one day,” said Gungun.

Since 2005, following a landslide at TPA Leuwigajah in Cimahi, Greater Bandung has relied on TPA Sarimukti in Cipatat, West Bandung regency, as the final garbage dump. The use permit for the land owned by state-owned forestry company Perum Perhutani, covering only 25 hectares in the initial contract that ended in 2018, has been extended to 2020.

The West Java provincial government through the Regional Waste Management Agency has submitted a proposal for the expansion of the dumpsite by 15 ha and the extension of its contract until 2023, in response to the postponement of the operation of the Legok Nangka final waste processing site (TPPAS) in Nagreg, Bandung regency.

From the beginning, Sarimukti has only served as an open garbage dump. In connection with the contract extension, the management body of Sarimukti is required to apply the system of sanitary landfill, so that garbage will not just be heaped up on open ground.

Poor waste management at Sarimukti at the end of last year has been blamed for the failure of regencies and cities in Greater Bandung to secure the Adipura Trophy, an award granted by the Environment and Forestry Ministry to regencies and cities for sustainable urban cleanliness and environmental management.

The head of the Bandung Environment and Sanitation Agency at the time of the Adipura 2018 evaluation, Salman Fauzi, said his office failed to get the award because the 17 requirements set by the ministry included the availability of good final garbage dumps in regencies and cities. The problem was, added Salman, that the Bandung city administration owned no land for a TPA, so that it had to utilize Sarimukti under the management of the West Java provincial administration.

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