Scavengers whine about decreasing income<\/p>\n
Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Scavengers -- living in the Bantar Gebang dump site in Bekasi,
\neast of Jakarta -- have been complaining that their daily income
\nhas been falling due to a declining market.<\/p>\n
\"It has been difficult lately to earn Rp 10,000 (US$1) per
\nday,\" said Sufi, an 18-year-old scavenger who lives near the site
\nalong with 3,000 other families.<\/p>\n
His complaint was echoed by Marhatip, who has been a scavenger
\nfor seven years. He considered Sufi lucky for being single.
\nMarhatip has four children and was forced to sell some of his
\nbelongings to feed his family.<\/p>\n
\"I sold my television set, clothes and other things to feed my
\nfamily. If I'm lucky, I can earn Rp 500,000 in a month but that
\nis very rare,\" said Marhatip, who originally came from Madura
\nisland in East Java.<\/p>\n
The worsening situation began mid last year when many
\ncompanies -- which usually bought recyclable items from the site
\nto make cheap toys -- went bankrupt due to the prolonged economic
\ncrisis which hit the country in 1997.<\/p>\n
With less companies buying items from the scavengers, the
\nprice has dropped drastically.<\/p>\n
Regar, who always buys items from the scavengers, said the
\nprice of plastic buckets had dropped from Rp 700 per kilogram
\n(kg) into only Rp 400 per kg. The mineral water plastic price has
\ndecreased from Rp 500 per kg to Rp 300 per kg.<\/p>\n
Nearly all scavengers are not local residents of Bantar
\nGebang. Most of them came from Madura island and Indramayu, West
\nJava. They usually rent the empty lot from locals and set up
\ntemporary shanties from materials taken from the dump site.<\/p>\n
Despite the fact that the recycling business is worsening,
\nnewcomers still come to Bantar Gebang to try their luck.<\/p>\n
Among of them is Sujangi (30), his wife and their seven year
\nold son who came from Madura island a month ago.<\/p>\n
\"I heard from a friend that we would be able to earn our
\nliving here. I was jobless back home. Sometimes, I couldn't even
\nbuy a cigarette. That's the reason why I came here,\" Sujangi
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
The scavengers role in cleaning up the city may not be seen as
\nuseful by many. Some people even suspect them as criminals
\nalthough they only take inorganic garbage from houses.<\/p>\n
But chairperson of the Urban Poverty Consortium (UPC), Wardah
\nHafidz, dubbed them as the \"city savers\" as they have been
\npreventing Jakarta from becoming a plastic garbage graveyard.<\/p>\n
\"Unfortunately, very few of our people really care about the
\nscavengers' fate. Some even have skeptically identified them as
\nthieves or looters. We can clearly see the sign 'No entry for
\nscavengers' in certain areas specially luxury housing estates,\"
\nsaid Wardah.<\/p>\n
With the appointment of two local companies working together
\nwith two separate North American companies -- PT Putra Bakti
\nMahkota and PT Interindo Global, which will process the city's
\ngarbage, organic and inorganic, into ethyl alcohol, plastic raw
\nmaterial and fertilizer -- the scavengers' source of living is
\nfacing further threats.<\/p>\n
Before the deadline, they still have time to collect
\nrecyclable items before selling them to feed their families.<\/p>",
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