Garbage, a source of rags and riches<\/p>\n
Multa Fidrus, The Jakarta Post, Tangerang<\/p>\n
Garbage, though unsightly and smelly, is not without its uses;
\nindeed it can, if handled properly, be a source of money.<\/p>\n
Take the efforts of the Tangerang-based Cooperation for
\nDeveloping the Economy of Indonesian People (Koperi).<\/p>\n
With 14 workers, Koperi produces an average of 1,000 kilograms
\nof organic fertilizer per day. This fertilizer is, in turn, sold
\nfor between Rp 400 and Rp 700 per kilo, according to Koperi
\nchairman Gusri Effendi Simanjuntak.<\/p>\n
Gusri, 36, an activist of Communication Forum for Small and
\nMiddle Businessmen (FKPPI), started out making organic fertilizer
\ntwo years ago in small amounts in the Cileduk market.<\/p>\n
There, he noticed plots of land across the capital city and
\nTangerang, which had been neglected by developers still reeling
\nfrom the economic crisis. Gusri, while cultivating the plots for
\nvegetable farming, tried out the organic fertilizer.<\/p>\n
In all, he explained, the composting process takes one week.<\/p>\n
As garbage trucks unload the trash, workers separate the
\norganic from the nonorganic. The organic garbage is then put onto
\nvessels, and mixed in a semi-micro bioactivator, which converts
\nwaste, be it liquid or solid, into useful material.<\/p>\n
After successfully studying how to transform waste into
\norganic fertilizer, Gusri has also tested its usefulness on
\nseveral local farms across the municipal town over the past two
\nyears.<\/p>\n
In the time since, Koperi has grown into one of the main
\norganic fertilizer producers in Tangerang.<\/p>\n
\"The present garbage handling system, as applied across the
\ncountry,\" he said in an interview, \"is merely removing problems
\nfrom one place to other new places.\"<\/p>\n
In February 2001, Koperi got a significant boost when the
\nTangerang municipal administration entrusted the company to
\ncompost garbage at Rawa Kucing. Administration officials supplied
\nGusri with a warehouse, 15 fermentation vessels and a rototiller
\nmodified to shred trash.<\/p>\n
It is estimated that Tangerang's 1.3 million people produce
\n3,290 cubic meters of household garbage per day. But only 1,080
\ncubic meters can be transported to Rawa Kucing dump.<\/p>\n
\"The problem now,\" he said, \"is that we need more vessels for
\nfermentation process, and more machines which destroy trash.\"<\/p>\n
Gusri said Koperi's target next year is the production of 15
\ntons of compost daily. That fertilizer would then be transformed
\nfrom 150 tons, or 1,500 cubic meters of wet garbage.<\/p>\n
Koperi has also developed several business units as an urban
\nwaste management consultant, while conducting workshops on
\nfarming business development and machinery supplies for farming.<\/p>\n
These all take place at the Rawa Kucing dump, Jl. Sewan, Benda
\ndistrict of Tangerang. He has also built a new compost maker in
\nSibolga, Central Tapanuli, North Sumatra.<\/p>\n
Gusri is now also managing its second organic fertilizer pilot
\nproject on a one-hectare onion farm in Satahi Nauli village, in
\nthe Kolang district of Central Tapanuli Regency, North Sumatra.<\/p>\n
So far, it has absorbed 70 tons of the fertilizer produced in
\nTangerang.<\/p>\n
In the first harvest last September, it produced 10 tons of
\nonion, while a similar farm without organic fertilizer in Karo
\nand Simalungun regencies could only produce four to five tons of
\nonion per hectare.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Nuriman Machjudin, the municipal head of the
\nTangerang health agency, said her administration had trained
\nresidents in Mekarsari subdistrict, near the Rawa Kucing dump,
\nhow to make compost.<\/p>\n
Although the dregs of trash can be turned into organic
\nfertilizer, the liquid produced by the trash is dangerous and
\nthreatens the environment, she said; it must be disposed of.<\/p>\n
\"We are developing a technology,\" said Nuriman, adding that
\nthe agency is also working on a method of turning bones into
\ncompost.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/garbage-a-source-of-rags-and-riches-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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