Scavengers whine about decreasing income

Scavengers whine about decreasing income

Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Scavengers -- living in the Bantar Gebang dump site in Bekasi,
east of Jakarta -- have been complaining that their daily income
has been falling due to a declining market.

"It has been difficult lately to earn Rp 10,000 (US$1) per
day," said Sufi, an 18-year-old scavenger who lives near the site
along with 3,000 other families.

His complaint was echoed by Marhatip, who has been a scavenger
for seven years. He considered Sufi lucky for being single.
Marhatip has four children and was forced to sell some of his
belongings to feed his family.

"I sold my television set, clothes and other things to feed my
family. If I'm lucky, I can earn Rp 500,000 in a month but that
is very rare," said Marhatip, who originally came from Madura
island in East Java.

The worsening situation began mid last year when many
companies -- which usually bought recyclable items from the site
to make cheap toys -- went bankrupt due to the prolonged economic
crisis which hit the country in 1997.

With less companies buying items from the scavengers, the
price has dropped drastically.

Regar, who always buys items from the scavengers, said the
price of plastic buckets had dropped from Rp 700 per kilogram
(kg) into only Rp 400 per kg. The mineral water plastic price has
decreased from Rp 500 per kg to Rp 300 per kg.

Nearly all scavengers are not local residents of Bantar
Gebang. Most of them came from Madura island and Indramayu, West
Java. They usually rent the empty lot from locals and set up
temporary shanties from materials taken from the dump site.

Despite the fact that the recycling business is worsening,
newcomers still come to Bantar Gebang to try their luck.

Among of them is Sujangi (30), his wife and their seven year
old son who came from Madura island a month ago.

"I heard from a friend that we would be able to earn our
living here. I was jobless back home. Sometimes, I couldn't even
buy a cigarette. That's the reason why I came here," Sujangi
said.

The scavengers role in cleaning up the city may not be seen as
useful by many. Some people even suspect them as criminals
although they only take inorganic garbage from houses.

But chairperson of the Urban Poverty Consortium (UPC), Wardah
Hafidz, dubbed them as the "city savers" as they have been
preventing Jakarta from becoming a plastic garbage graveyard.

"Unfortunately, very few of our people really care about the
scavengers' fate. Some even have skeptically identified them as
thieves or looters. We can clearly see the sign 'No entry for
scavengers' in certain areas specially luxury housing estates,"
said Wardah.

With the appointment of two local companies working together
with two separate North American companies -- PT Putra Bakti
Mahkota and PT Interindo Global, which will process the city's
garbage, organic and inorganic, into ethyl alcohol, plastic raw
material and fertilizer -- the scavengers' source of living is
facing further threats.

Before the deadline, they still have time to collect
recyclable items before selling them to feed their families.