Company trains scouts to treat waste

Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Boy scout instructors from several provinces were amazed by how well students of State Junior High School No. 49 (SMP 49) in Kramat Jati, East Jakarta, explained and demonstrated ways to turn garbage into fertilizer or recycled paper.

"By pouring a bottle of this liquid to the garbage we can turn it into fertilizer in a week. We can then use it for our plants," Agus Santosa, 14, a student who explained about how waste could be recycled to boy scout instructors from several provinces. They came to SMP 49 to attend a program on promoting waste treatment among students.

The program, organized by the National Scouts Association (Kwarnas Pramuka) and PT NEC Indonesia, aimed at familiarizing students with the concepts of waste treatment.

Agus, a third-year student at SMP 49, said that although he and his other scout friends had only attended a three-day training course, they were already capable of processing almost any kind of garbage into fertilizer or paper.

"We will turn all the garbage in our school into fertilizer and use it for our plants. We hope we can have a clean and green school. We will train our friends here in waste treatment," Agus told The Jakarta Post after his presentation.

With Jakarta producing 6,000 tons of garbage daily, the city is notorious for its poor waste treatment.

The city does not yet have a permanent dump site after local residents closed the newly constructed Bojong Gede dump site in Bogor, West Java.

The city is now disposing of its waste at the Bantargebang dump site in Bekasi, West Java.

With Jakarta residents continuing to throw garbage into rivers and gutters, the city experiences serious flooding almost every year.

NEC president director Yasuyoshi Gando said that training students how to treat garbage would help reduce the amount of garbage circulating in the capital and thus reduce the possibility of flood.

"This is our contribution to Indonesia, the country we are living in. This is part of our community development program. We believe that students will spread their knowledge to others in their neighborhoods," he told the Post.

Gando said that his company would continue to monitor the progress of the program in the school and planned to conduct a similar program in other schools.

Parni Hadi of Kwarnas Pramuka, who also witnessed the students' demonstration, said that the students were agents to spread ideas to older people, including their parents, so that correct waste treatment could be applied in the wider community.

"We have around 20 million scout members across the country. If we can spread these waste treatment skills to them then we can hope to have a better environment," he said.

Parni said that Kwarnas would continue to teach waste treatment skills to more scout members in all provinces throughout the country.