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Learning to live green at Kampung Hijau Berseri
Kampung Hijau Berseri has built a reputation for community efforts to reuse, reduce and recycle trash.
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Kampung Hijau Berseri has built a reputation for community efforts to reuse, reduce and recycle trash. (JP/Anggie Angela)
T
he gates to the neighborhood are covered with vines and many other plants. Trash bins for organic and nonorganic waste are placed approximately 20 steps from each other. The area feels fresh with cool air.
That was the ambience of community unit (RW) 3 in the subdistrict of East Cempaka Putih in Cempaka Putih district, Central Jakarta. The Jakarta administration recently declared the neighborhood a model for shared responsibility in waste management.
Dubbed Kampung Hijau Berseri, everything in the surrounding seems to testify to the community unit’s reputation.
Aan Ardjali, a resident of neighborhood unit (RT) 9 and the former head of RW 3, said the community had been living the green life for a decade.
Although it has been a decade, the community’s focus shifts from time to time. Back then, Aan said, they had focused on campaigning for clean and healthy behavior, which eventually led to the community waste management program.
“It takes a long time to raise awareness in people, and we’ve come a long way to this point,” he told The Jakarta Post.
The program’s main objective was to reduce waste from the area by at least 20 percent. The landfill in Bantar Gebang, Bekasi, is predicted to be overloaded in 2021.
