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Mountains of trash, about 6,000 tons, are dumped unceremoniously into Jakarta’s open landfills every day.

But an enterprising group of activists has been busy trying to reduce the growing pile of garbage by inviting people to throw the trash their way.

With its motto “Save the earth and help the street children,” Kampus Diakonia Modern (KDM)’s Green Project helps reduce waste by salvaging whatever is recyclable from the refuse.

Renie Elvina Tiurma, the project leader, said the project originated in the foundation’s own backyard — from a rotting 15-year-old pile of waste that had started to affect the health of children and staff alike.

KDM was founded in 1972 as a charity to provide housing, food and education for street children. In 2002, the Green Project was born, with the KDM children selling the recyclable waste from the backyard dump.

They now sort out and utilize paper, plastic, rubber, glass bottles, old furniture, discarded electronics, shoes and metal from the waste, recycling what they can on site.

Salvaged items are used to produce paper, art and jewelry. Anything KDM is unable to process is sold to recycling plants.

Since the Green Project’s conception, at least 250 households and 25 companies have joined the cause.

But Renie said they still needed more people to participate in order to truly make a dent in Jakarta’s landfills.

She pointed out that only 12 percent of garbage needed to end up in landfills.

“Forty-eight percent of rubbish can be recycled,” she said. “Forty percent of it can be turned into compost.”

Her dream is for the project to become sustainable, for people to be educated and for the message to be spread widely. She said recycling was simple with the use of four bins: one for plastic, one for paper, one for metals and the last for organic waste.

To help with the recycling process, she said, it is important to “take just two minutes to rinse food scraps from the rubbish.”

Renie said anyone in South or Central Jakarta could sign up for the Green Project. “We collect waste, for free, from private homes, offices, shops, restaurants and factories,” she said.

The latest to join the project is the New Zealand Embassy in Central Jakarta.

New Zealand’s ambassador, David Taylor, said the garbage around Jakarta was unsightly, and praised the Green Project’s efforts to clean it up.

“The thing that really gets me about this place is the trash,” he said. “It’s everywhere.”

Yvonne Tukotahi, who works at the embassy, said that as soon as the recycling bins arrived, the embassy staff members would take on the challenge.

Renie said that an added bonus for KDM was that there were profits to be reaped from the Green Project.

“The revenue made will help KDM to make improvements for the children’s education and health,” she said. “Job opportunities will be created for those children who are not intellectually gifted, but who can drive.”

She said the foundation had been begging for donations, but the Green Project would change that. “It will give us a business, which will also give us dignity and pride.”

www.jakartagreenproject.com
Renie Elvina Tiurma, Project Leader
Tel: 62 21 322 31484; 62 21 818 0833 0633
E-mail: recycle@jakartagreenproject.com