Waste Not …

Most of us think garbage is dirty, unusable and better left for others to deal with. Deanne Whitfield visits a Central Java village to see how one man’s example is helping change that perception.

Waste disposal is not only an ongoing and pressing issue in urban areas, but also affects rural regions. Lacking a workable waste management system at the national level, the government response to waste disposal still involves the removal of garbage from one place to another, which creates its own set of problems at teeming landfills.

Apart from the dated government educational campaign slogan of “buang sampah pada tempatnya” (throw away rubbish in its place), dissemination of information and education on waste disposal and recycling has for the most part been left to NGOs and local administrations.

“I don’t like the slogan … it suggests garbage is something which cannot be reused and therefore must be discarded,” says Iswanto, an environmental health lecturer at the Yogyakarta Polytechnic of Health.

He believes that efforts to responsibly dispose of waste must first begin in every household. With this in mind, he started a garbage recycling program in his own backyard -- the village where he lives.

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A walk through Sukunan village reveals a neat, green, fresh, peaceful and, most importantly, clean environment. But the village wasn’t always like this.

Iswanto and his wife Endah moved from Yogyakarta city to Sukunan village in 1997.  The land was relatively cheap and the area was still fringed by a small forest, providing a refreshing refuge from the ever-growing city. Although only 5 kilometers west of Yogyakarta’s city center, Sukunan was still somewhat isolated and its residents had limited access to good health services and education.

Due to the absence of a garbage collection service from the regency administration, residents had resorted to disposing of their garbage by burning it, burying it, throwing it on nearby unused plots of land or simply tossing it in water channels to be carried away.

“As long as rubbish was ‘out of sight and out of mind’, the residents (of Sukunan) were happy,” Iswanto said.

But it became someone else’s problem, and those people weren’t happy about it.

In 2000, local farmers -- fed up with clearing trash carried by the wind and waterways onto their land -- held a village meeting about the problem of plastic and other garbage they were constantly finding strewn in their rice fields, which was disturbing the growth of seedlings and affecting paddy cultivation.

As a community member and academic, Iswanto felt an overwhelming sense of responsibility to do something. He pointed out that pollution of the water channels and village would only get worse, unless efforts were made to manage waste disposal.

Iswanto carried out simple research at a local landfill. After speaking to scavengers, he found that certain items – paper, hard plastic and glass -- had significant economic value because they could be collected and sold to recycling plants.

It occurred to him that if the residents of Sukunan learned to separate their waste, rubbish would no longer be considered a problem, but deemed something of value.

Iswanto -- together with Endah and their two children, Deva and Rifda -- began separating household waste into four categories: plastic, glass/metal, paper and organic. He also tried out the system at his office and soon shared his ideas with Sukunan residents.

“I started with friends from my night patrol group and when it worked in their households I began to share the idea with other people in the village.”

From these humble beginnings, a program known as the SPSM, or the Independent Garbage Recycling System, was developed.

Getting everyone involved
A small grant provided by a donor in 2003 gave Sukunan residents the opportunity to purchase several 44-gallon drums to be used as communal waste collection bins. A competition was held to paint the drums.

Sets of three of these eye-catching drums – one each for plastic, glass/metal and paper waste – are now located at 22 strategic points around the village. Members of the waste management team empty the bins regularly and take the recyclable waste to the village’s waste collection center, where it is purchased by recycling plants and collected by trucks.

As the system progressed, Iswanto and the waste management team experimented with ways to recycle organic waste by making compost. Clay pots were found to be the best storage containers for household compost, as they are porous and afford better air circulation for microorganisms to breed and break down waste material.

Every house in Sukunan now has its own clay pot for recycling household organic waste. Different soil inoculants, made from natural ingredients (such as rice husks, tempe yeast and sugar) are added to combat odor and the infestation of maggots. The compost is used in household and communal gardens and any surplus is sold to nurseries. A particular species of earthworm has recently been introduced to the compost to help breakdown toxins in the soil, such as lead and pesticides.

Endah also recycles foil sachets from powdered beverages sold at village stalls. She taught several women in the village to sew and create handbags, pencil-cases, magazine racks, coin purses and hats from the used sachets. A group of 17 women is now active in the production of the handicrafts, which are purchased by other Sukunan residents and visitors to the village.

Stall owners are paid Rp 10 per sachet they save for the handicraft group – and this has motivated more people to participate in the recycling program.

Lessons on environment and waste management are taken by children in Sukunan every Sunday morning. High school students (who have been taught by the village waste management team trainers) show elementary school-aged children how to plant trees, make compost, separate waste for recycling and teach the importance of the “three R’s”: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.

Villages from Yogyakarta (in Sleman, Bantul, Gunung Kidul and Yogyakarta city), Central Java (Magelang and Borobudur) and West Java (Cirebon and Bandung) have attempted to replicate Sukunan’s recycling program. Iswanto says the success rate is “about 50/50”. 

“It really depends on the social status of the people in the village … some wealthier people are not as motivated or interested in the program because they can afford to pay for waste removal services,” he said.

“Success of the recycling program also depends on the type of garbage in the area and value of the recyclable items, the community character and location. There needs to be at least one or two really determined people in each village to initiate the system, monitor it and modify it to suit their location. Otherwise, it can easily fail.”

Students from Gadjah Mada University have introduced the program to other communities as the project component of their month-long study-service scheme placements. A local radio station has also helped publicize Sukunan’s program. 

Iswanto says the residents of the village enjoy a sense of ownership of the program and are happy with its benefits. “They are no longer confused about what to do with their rubbish … they don’t have to pay for it to be transported away like people in other nearby villages do.”

There also has been a reduction in infections and mosquito-borne diseases, such as dengue, because there are less plastic bottles left discarded to collect water -- an ideal breeding ground for mosquitoes.

Income generated from the sale of recyclable items, compost and handicrafts is added to a village fund, which so far has financed the purchase of communal equipment (such as a sound system for village activities, chairs, tables and a transportable  marquee for weddings and other events), covered operational costs (the purchase of more bins, clay pots and bags for packing compost) and paid supplementary wages to 35 people in the village (compost workers, rubbish collectors that move the recyclable waste from the drums to the waste collection center for further sorting and a salesperson at the center who negotiates prices with the companies that buy the waste).

The village fund is also used to cover transportation and other associated costs involved in providing educational seminars -- which are conducted at other villages by Sukunan residents – including a small payment made to each of the workshop coordinators.

Challenges
In October 2004, Sukunan’s waste management program won a national recycling competition, with the village earning an award and recognition from the Environment Ministry and the Women’s Empowerment Ministry. This did not, however, lead to significant government funding or support.

“Several government ministries are still hesitant about endorsing our waste management program,” Iswanto said. “People are often skeptical of new ideas.” Government officials have visited Sukunan to observe the success of the program with their very own eyes, yet still cast doubts the program will be enduring.

“Look at our progress … we are moving into our fifth year now and getting better and better. This lack of motivation and a reluctance (or laziness) to change old systems and ways of thinking is one of the real challenges that we face,” Iswanto said, adding that the Sukunan waste management program was, in fact, inadvertently helping the local government manage garbage, by cutting transportation costs and reducing the volume of garbage being dumped at landfill sites.

Although he estimates from 85-90 percent of locals participate in the program, Iswanto said enthusiasm dwindled following the devastating earthquake of May 2006, which destroyed several houses in Sukunan and left many residents homeless.

“People had more important things to deal with, but I tried to keep up morale, as I believed it was important to continue what we had begun.”

Many houses needed to be rebuilt following the quake, but resources were scarce and finances low. Iswanto and the waste management team came up with an ingenious plan to transform Styrofoam from packaging into bricks. Made from one part cement, three parts sand and four parts granulated Styrofoam, bricks were molded and dried in the sun, then used to rebuild several houses in the village.

“The solution was really two-fold, as we needed the building materials and had not yet figured out a way to recycle Styrofoam packaging.”

Plant pots and roof tiles are now also being produced using this formula.

To apply this waste management model successfully on a larger scale, Iswanto stresses the importance of community commitment and support from the government, NGOs and local businesses, with education in schools the key. However, he says the most difficult challenge lies in changing the attitudes of parents, who pass on negative waste management behaviors to their children.

“We need to ensure that the future generation will think differently. We shouldn’t teach children to think of garbage as something negative. We should instead teach them the value of it … teach them to manage it and learn to love it.

“Show them how they can utilize garbage and they won’t think of it as a problem anymore. At the very least, we owe our children this.”

For further information on Sukunan’s waste management program, Iswanto can be reached at: isswanto@yahoo.com

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