Root Cause of Rubbish Piling Up to the Sixth Floor in Tambora Flats

JAKARTA - The problem of rubbish accumulation in the Tambora Rental Flats (Rusunawa) in West Jakarta remains unresolved. Piles of household waste in the vertical drainage area or shaft of the flats have become blocked up to the sixth floor of the building. This rubbish buildup phenomenon has actually been occurring since the beginning of 2026 and is not only triggered by operational restrictions at the Bantargebang TPST, but also the impact of a fleet crisis and the absence of truck drivers from the local Environmental Agency (LH). Through corridors connected on each floor measuring 30x60 centimetres, residents dispose of rubbish from above, and the waste slides down to the temporary collection point (TPS) on the ground floor. However, because the storage below is full and not collected, new rubbish thrown in ends up clogging the shaft corridor. In Tower B building, the rubbish has piled up to the third floor, while in Tower C the condition is worse with accumulation reaching the sixth floor. Currently, the management has been forced to deactivate two out of three disposal points to avoid worsening the pile-up. Residents now have to go down directly carrying their rubbish using the lift. “If it piles up more, it reaches higher up. It’s blocked, the rubbish can’t come out, that’s the current condition,” said the Manager of Tambora Rusunawa UPRS I, Gatot Nurferianto, when met by Kompas.com at the location on Tuesday (7/4/2026). This situation also forces cleaning staff to work extra hard to penetrate the narrow, dark, and smelly corridors to manually dismantle the blockages, then put them into sulo bins. “We have to go right into the shaft. We take the lift first carrying the bin, then after dismantling the blocked position,” said the Cleaning Implementer at Tambora Rusunawa, Soiful Bahri. “Especially sometimes when we’re inside, rubbish is thrown down from above,” he added.