Household income,living and working conditions of dumpsite waste pickers in Bantar Gebang: Toward integrated waste management in Indonesia

This paper clarifies household income, living and working conditions of dumpsite waste pickers at Bantar Gebang final disposal site for municipal solid waste generated in Jakarta, and investigates the feasibility of integrating the informal sector into formal waste management in Indonesia. The first author did fieldwork for totally 16 months at the site and quantitative field surveys were conducted twice during the period. All respondents in the first round quantitative survey (n = 1390) were categorized as follows: waste pickers, family workers, wage labors, bosses, family of the bosses, housewives, pupils/students, preschoolers, the unemployed, and others. Based on the results of the second round quantitative survey (n = 69 households), their average household income was estimated to be approximately US 216 dollars per month (n = 59 households), which was virtually equivalent to the minimum wage in Jakarta in 2013. Living conditions of scavengers at the site were horrible, and their working conditions were dangerous due to medical waste and other sharp waste. Polluted groundwater was one of the serious environmental problems at the site. Despite the social, health and environmental problems, they were attracted to the freedom of entering the informal recycling system in Bantar Gebang and withdrawing from the system, in which a lot of opportunities were provided for the people having few marketable skills to obtain cash earnings. The freedom of their choice should be guaranteed as a prerequisite before integrating the informal sector into formal waste management. Furthermore, special attentions are required when incomes of scavengers are the same level as minimum wages and the national economy is rapidly growing, because scavengers cannot easily change their jobs due to few marketable skills. Indonesian national waste laws and regulations should be properly applied to facilitate a socialization process at final disposal sites. Measures need to be taken to prevent children from working as informal recycling actors, especially for waste pickers aged 15 or younger.     

Waste-based composites—Poverty reducing solutions to environmental problems

This paper highlights an innovative model of waste management combined with poverty reduction, which has been developed by the organisation Waste for Life (wasteforlife.org) - a network of academics, students, practitioners and on the ground cooperative partners in low income communities. The Waste for Life teams work with local cooperatives to create waste-based composites, which may be sold in local markets, thereby creating an income stream. The application of this model to the context of cartoneros (waste picker) cooperatives in Buenos Aires, Argentina, reveals that viable products can be made from paper and plastic waste, with low-impact material preparation that circumvents the need for chemically intensive, polluting and mechanically degrading procedures, preserving recycled fibre integrity. Tests on material samples indicate mechanical properties comparable to products made with more complex processing. The production model is based on the philosophy that not only the waste materials, but also the production equipment should be locally sourced and manufactured and products created to suit local markets. A simple reproducible model has been developed for the local manufacture of composites from waste, which can provide an income source for waste pickers as well as providing an innovative waste management solution.     

浅论循环经济视野下的拾荒者与城市生活垃圾处理问题

文章简单介绍国内城市生活垃圾处理的现状,探讨城市拾荒者之于城市循环经济的意义,分析社会各界对拾荒者的认识与态度,建议针对我国国情应充分发挥拾荒者经济外部性的正效应,合理控制拾荒者经济外部性的负效应,为我国城市生活垃圾"减量化、无害化、资源化"处理谋求高效低成本的实现方法,以期达到城市循环经济的目标.