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Pemulung: A Vital Role to Urban Waste Management of Jakarta

My undergraduate thesis was about the role of Pemulung (urban waste pickers) in sustainability, specifically within the domain of waste management, recycling, as well as sustainable architecture. The thesis (Fauzi, 2009) was an investigation of how Pemulung's activity could be seen as a sustainability operation observed from the perspective of the everyday in both urban and domestic scale.


Unlike in many well-managed cities in developed countries, official waste management in Jakarta is not able to cope with the large amount of waste generated by the city. It is estimated that the total waste produced by the city is approximately 6,000 tons per day (National Geographic Indonesia 2015). That amount is two times the capacity of official waste collection infrastructure which is only able to collect 3,000 tons of waste to the landfill. The remaining waste piled up in informal landfills around the city as well as being thrown to the river (causing more environmental and health problems). Surprisingly, significant amount of these waste are brought back to the recycling process by Pemulung's operation.

Pemulung (waste picker) is an important part of urban waste cycle in Jakarta (tempo.co 2012)

Pemulung is an informal profession corresponding with the urban lower class society. Waste picking activity is seen as a source of income by the urban poor. This activity emerged spontaneously as a response to the self-generated informal waste management network. Pemulung is an important and vital part of this informal waste collection and recycling network.


My finding (Fauzi 2009) revealed the extent of this informal waste recycling network, reaching out urban spots to its smallest scale. Pemulung operates wherever there is waste: small trash bins, waste piles, and large landfills. Pemulung collects recyclable materials from these places. At the end of the day, they sort the waste collected based on types of material (plastics, glasses, papers, e-waste, etc.). Once the amount of a specific waste type is large enough to make a good money, they sell the result of their work to a 'Bandar' (a collector). A Bandar could receive the recyclable waste from tens of pemulungs staying nearby his place. At this level (Bandar's place), the waste are being sorted again into more specific types of material (for example plastics are being separated into different type of plastics). The Bandar then sells these recyclable materials to an 'Agen' (Agent). An Agen is a connector between Bandars and the factories or recycling facilities which will recycle these waste into new products/ new use. The flow of this waste recycling process in this informal network is explained by the diagram below.

Waste flow in informal waste recycling network (Fauzi 2009)

It is interesting to see how pemulung operation and its network work as informal collection system supporting the city waste management. Although pemulung is seen as an informal sector (thus its existence is sometimes rejected by the formal governance/society), it exhibits resiliency in urban context. What I mean by resiliency here is that Pemulungs are able to turn problems (shortages in official waste collection service) into economic potentials (source of income). On the other hand, their operation also contributes to the sustainability aspects of the city (waste recycling).


References:


Fauzi, R 2009, Pemulung dan Sustainable Architecture Ditinjau dari Sudut Pandang Everyday Studi Kasus: Pemulung di Kampung Lio, Depok, (Pemulung and Sustainable Architecture in the Perspective of Everyday Case Study: Pemulung in Kampung Lio, Depok), University of Indonesia, Depok,


National Geographic Indonesia 2015, 'Sampah di Jakarta Diperkirakan Capai 6.000 Ton per Hari', (Jakarta Generates 6,000 tons of Waste per Day), 25 February,



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