Furniture recyclers struggle to survive eviction

Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Jakarta's hot spot for used wooden window and door frames of good quality is no longer, as the city administration has cleared the area under the Slipi flyover in Gelora, Central Jakarta, for gardens.

The eviction from the strategic area will not kill the recycled building material business easily. The business has been running since the early 1980s and has created jobs for more than 100 workers. At least, it will not immediately die out.

Sirat, one of the evicted small-scale entrepreneurs, said recently that the recyclers feared losing their customers, as they had not yet had a chance to inform customers that they had relocated to different areas.

The recyclers receive orders to dismantle houses, and then repair and refurbish the salvaged materials and furniture fixings into "new" fixings like doors, windows and door frames, and even furniture.

Instead of taking out costly advertisements, the recyclers rely on word-of-mouth to spread information and news.

"My regular customers haven't been told yet that I have moved to a vacant plot in Petamburan, not far from here," Sirat told The Jakarta Post. "My wife and I will hang around here, near our old spot, perhaps for another six months, just in case our customers are looking for us."

The couple left behind a wooden table and a chair under the flyover, which are ignored by the workers of the City Park Agency as they cultivate the gardens.

"I will sleep here and wait for my customers, around the clock if I need to," Sirat's wife, Masmu, said.

The couple said some of their customers came a long way -- from Bogor to the south of Jakarta and Bekasi to the east.

Sirat, originally from the woodcraft town of Jepara, Central Java, has run his business under the flyover for over 20 years and has built up a loyal and regular customer base.

However, now that he has moved to a rented space inside a Petamburan housing complex, no customers have come in the past two weeks.

He said another recycler had moved to Joglo, West Jakarta, while another moved to Serpong, Tangerang, because officials from the Gelora and Petamburan subdistrict offices told them to leave.

The space beneath the Slipi flyover was among the first areas under elevated roads to be cleared by the Public Works Agency, because the agency believed that human activities there could damage the road.

Many such areas are used for small businesses set up by street vendors, while others are occupied by squatters because they cannot afford to own land in the capital.

Sirat said he paid Rp 2 million (US$235) annually to rent his new 50-square-meter place, double the amount he paid every year for the spacious area under the Slipi flyover.

"I gave the money to a businessman named Pak Hasyim. He told me the money would be distributed to the Gelora and Petamburan subdistrict offices and also the Tanah Abang district office," he said. He must also pay a monthly fee of Rp 20,000 and a parking fee of Rp 25,000.

"The eviction may hurt the business if I could not get all of my customers back," Sirat said.