Environmental Health and Recycling Program in Sukunan Village, Yogyakarta

By Dr Lea Jellinek and Mr Ed Kiefer
ACICIS Resident Directors
Yogyakarta, April 2004
See photos of the project by Janelle Marburg
See photos of the project by Dr Lea Jellinek

Abstract

After visiting our home and observing our household waste management, leaders from a small village on the edge of Yogyakarta have enthusiastically taken up ideas and practices of composting and recycling and spread them throughout their community. They were troubled by plastic and rubbish clogging their irrigation channels and rice fields. With minimal outside funding, the village has collected, cleaned and beautifully painted over fifty 44-gallon drums which have been strategically placed around the village for the collection of separated waste for sale to recyclers. They have developed a large ceramic container for composting in the kitchen (for those who have no land).

We have had good press coverage, and there is hope these ideas will spread to other villages. We believe the team of community leaders in Sukunan village are breaking new ground. As far as we know, this separation of rubbish in homes, and an entire community involved in recycling is the first program of its type in Yogya or anywhere else in Indonesia.

Part One: January 2004, Introduction

We have been planning this rubbish recycling and income-generating project for about five months and over the past two months it has finally got off the ground. Literally, the rubbish is being taken "off the ground" and the compost being put back in the ground. The short-term plan is to improve environmental and human health and to generate money in a community of 500 people in the village of Sukunan on the western edge of Yogyakarta. The long-term plan is to spread this project from Sukunan to many other villages and urban areas.

Extension/Education

Over the past two months in Sukunan, we have had a good reception from community leaders, school teachers, professional people, health educators, parents, adolescents and children. Community gatherings have been held every second day to educate/inform the community about poisons produced by the burning of plastic and the dangers from blockage of irrigation canals by rubbish.

With simple diagrams and concrete demonstrations the community has been shown how to separate rubbish in their kitchens and to produce compost. Fifty 44-gallon drums have been bought by the community as depositories for rubbish separated into plastic, glass+metal, and paper+cardboard. The local team leader prepared information and diagrams for the villagers of Sukunan in Bahasa Indonesia. Later these were translated into English for our donors - so it went in the reverse direction of many other projects which are written in English first and then translated into Indonesian for the recipient communities.

Activities

The drums are going to be painted by community youth and located in clusters near homes. Women in the community have decided where the drums are to be placed so that they are convenient to their kitchens. Competitions are going to be held for youth, children and women to see who separates their rubbish best.

We have bought two second-hand sewing machines for making handbags out of recycled plastic. Young unemployed women in the community are being taught how to sew these bags. Orders are already coming in from members of the community and from ACICIS students (our program - the Australian Consortium for In-Country Indonesian Studies which brings University students from over 20 Universities in Australia to study language and culture in Indonesia). Two ACICIS students have become involved with the women's handbag sewing group.

ACICIS Involvement

One ACICIS student is monitoring the project and plans to write it up as part of his honors thesis for Curtin University. He is focusing on the Community Development/Village Democracy/ Communication/extension aspects of the program as well as its environmental and social impacts. Another ACICIS student is our photographer. She hopes to monitor the entire story through film and then we can have an exhibition to promote the idea throughout Yogya and maybe other areas of Indonesia.

Infra-structure

A leading group of street artists - Apotik Komik- is supporting our idea and wants to help Sukunan youth with the design and painting of the 44 gallon drums so that they are attractive, durable and promote the idea of recycling. We will have a workshop on the use of paint, mixing of paint, design etc. We are hoping to attract troubled, demoralised, and unemployed youth in Sukunan. If our drums become popular, they may be desired by other communities and become a community business. The other idea is to do a street mural depicting the processes of rubbish recycling and community and environmental renewal.

Earnings

We have an agreement with a buyer who will come at regular intervals to collect the separated rubbish from our fifty 44-gallon drums. Payment will be made according to the weight and quality of the material collected and this money will go into community coffers. The community is learning to view rubbish as a resource which can be managed rather than discarded carelessly. A community of 200 households can save the significant sum of Rp.1,000,000 (AUD$180) monthly in rubbish collection fees alone. In addition there is potential income from the sale of recycled materials. These funds can go a long way to improving the community in many ways.

Costs

We have so far spent about AUD$1000 (Rp.6,500,000). Everyone has worked without payment - thus keeping our costs low. The main costs have been for the 44-gallon drums, two second-hand sewing machines, paint for drums, and one second-hand mobile phone for the project leader. All expenses have been carefully monitored by the community's own meticulous female treasurer for this project. The community is learning to handle funds carefully and transparently.

Project Leader

The project leader is a very talented young environmental health expert employed by the government-run Health Polytechnic of Yogyakarta. He has a Masters Degree in Tropical Medicine from Gadjah Mada University and a teaching degree from the Yogyakarta Teacher Training College. He was an outstanding student throughout his studies.

Ultimately, I would very much like to see our volunteer project leader get a scholarship for study in Australia. He is an unusually well-rounded man who not only has a good understanding of science but also of people. He knows how to communicate with the common man and woman and through his many evening talks has rallied the community around him. He learned much from his peasant father who was a village headman for 30 years in Gunung Kidul, one of the poorest areas of Central Java.

Background

Leaders from Sukunan village were troubled by plastic and rubbish clogging their irrigation channels and rice fields. The man who is now project leader visited our home and observed how we were separating rubbish in our kitchen and composting biodegradeable refuse in our garden - something that few people do in Yogya. He decided to do it in his own home and then he helped spread the idea to his neighbours and the rest of his community. He has designed small composting units for use in homes which have no land. (These are big clay pots with a lids - costing Rp.10,000 / AUD$1.50 - which may be suitable for dense slum areas).

The authors believe that the environmental degradation (pollution of air, rivers, ground water and seas, loss of forest, flora, fauna and soil ) on Java and other islands of Indonesia, is destroying what was 30 years ago one of the world's paradises. This destruction is affecting everybody - rich and poor, educated and ignorant. Most people are unfortunately ignorant of the environmental costs that are occurring as a consequence of unregulated development. There are no laws (or no enforcement of laws) controlling rubbish disposal, air, water, sea pollution etc. With poverty and overcrowding many people just dispose of rubbish however they can, mainly by burning or throwing it in any available space outside their homes - usually on public land and in rivers, irrigation canals, drains, gardens. The end result is a decline in productivity in rice fields, flooding, ugliness and disease. (Plastic rubbish collects stagnant water in which mosquitoes breed.)

Indonesians believe they have an endless supply of fertile soil, water, air and vegetation but it is being depleted rapidly while few seem to notice.

Part Two: April 2004

The villagers bought old battered kerosene drums from around Yogya with our funds and have transformed them into objects of art. Forty boys and girls - many out-of-school and unemployed - have painted delightful and beautiful environmental and other themes on fifty-five 44-gallon drums. The youth have displayed remarkable artistic talent and enthusiasm for the program.

Before being distributed throughout the village, the painted drums were placed on public display and received many prominent visitors, including the head of Environmental studies at Universitas Gadjah Mada (Bobi Setiawan), head of Environmental Studies at Universitas Negri Yogyakarta (Prof. Wuryadi), Dean of Architecture UGM (Hari Wibisono), Mulyadi Adhisupo (Journalist, Kedaulatan Rakyat), Bambang Bagus Kesumaaji (Journalist, Jakarta Post).

hen the project is operational - when recycling is actually occurring in every household - we plan to invite the Bupatis (Government District Leaders) from Sleman and Bantul. The aim is to spread the program to other areas.

It is extremely exciting to see the community run with this - a teacher, doctor, sanitarian, two people who work in a nearby hospital and Iswanto our scientist and social extension worker/team leader have done a remarkable job.

Our Australian university students have been exposed to real grass-roots development in a community which seems to be working. Most of them have nothing but praise for the Indonesians they have met in this program. They have become friends with the village leaders and with village youth.

The program seems have a momentum of its own. The community owns the program - they have designed and run it. People have not been paid but are participating with enthusiasm. They have witnessed the growth of village solidarity and can see their community changing in only a matter of months. There seems to be new hope.

Learning by doing has resulted in a health and environmental education program which is influencing children as young from 5 to 20, as well as mothers, fathers and grandparents. We are delighted and look forward to the program continuing into the future.