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.