From Waste to Rupiah: East Jakarta's RW 12 Malaka Jaya Converts Waste into Valuable Crafts

JAKARTA — Waste management remains a challenge in many neighbourhoods, with household waste often ending up in landfills without further processing. However, RW 12 Malaka Jaya in East Jakarta has adopted a different approach. The initiative began in 2016 when the local community, led by RW head Sudarsono, participated in a fair at Lapangan Banteng using wood waste to create bonsai. This experience sparked residents’ interest in sustainable waste management, leading to collective efforts. Sudarsono noted that waste segregation was already in place long before the governor’s regulation on waste separation. “We were already doing it, so implementing the regulation wasn’t difficult as we were used to sorting waste,” he said during an interview on Sunday, 24 May 2026. This enthusiasm later evolved into a collective movement. Sudarsono enlisted the RW 12 Malaka Jaya PKK (Family Welfare Empowerment) group to transform household waste into various handicrafts. Since 2017, residents have been using plastic waste such as coffee packets and sachet drink containers to create creative products. “It started in 2017 to reduce non-biodegradable plastic waste by turning it into crafts; our goal is a waste-free RW 12,” he explained.