Tambora Flats' Waste Clogs Up to Sixth Floor, Staff Clean Manually

Cleaners at Tambora Flats in West Jakarta manually drained rubbish from the vertical disposal shaft following a blockage extending to the sixth floor. The Waste Management Implementer at Tambora Flats, Soiful Bahri, stated that they had to enter the 30x60 centimetre shaft filled with foul-smelling rubbish to manually scoop out the piles. The rubbish was pulled out, placed into large bins, and then transported down using the lift. “We have to go right into the shaft. We take the lift up first with the bin, then dismantle the blockage. The risks are really about cleanliness and safety; the rubbish has been piling up for days, and sometimes while we’re inside, rubbish is thrown down from above,” said Soiful at the location on Tuesday. Despite appeals from staff for residents not to dispose of rubbish during the cleaning process, some defiant residents continued, causing rubbish to fall on the workers. Soiful explained that the rubbish accumulation problem at Tambora Flats had been evident since early 2026 due to a reduction in drivers and vehicles from the West Jakarta Environmental Office. The situation worsened due to landslides and queues at the Bantar Gebang Integrated Waste Processing Site since early March. “As far as I know from the Environmental Office, this year’s PJLP staff reductions are due to age. Some retired, some are ill. Vehicles are damaged. Plus, there are issues at Bantar Gebang. As a result, rubbish is piling up in several areas,” said Soiful. Under normal conditions, the Environmental Office’s transport trucks could enter three to four times a week empty to collect rubbish from the flats’ tower area. However, now the frequency is only once or twice a week, leading to uncontrolled accumulation. Moreover, during those two collections, the rubbish trucks arrive half-full after picking up from other points. Consequently, the daily 18 large bins of rubbish from the 800-unit flats can only have less than half transported. “So, if the total volume is 18 full bins, only six to seven can be taken. The rest piles up, adds more, and it continues every day,” added Soiful. Previously, rubbish in the vertical disposal chute at Tambora Flats in West Jakarta had piled up to the sixth floor of the building on Tuesday. The accumulation occurred due to delays in transporting waste to the Bantar Gebang Integrated Waste Processing Site, which also hindered removal from the chute’s ground-floor exit. Observations at the site on Tuesday afternoon showed the chute integrated into the building from the first to the 16th floor. The vertical disposal channel has a corridor approximately 30x60 centimetres wide and serves to drop household waste from the 16th floor to the ground level. Each floor has one chute door that can be opened and closed to drop rubbish to the ground-floor disposal. However, the ground-floor collection area appeared full and uncollected due to limited rubbish truck availability. This caused newly discarded rubbish from above to clog the channel, piling up, especially in the disposal channels of Towers B and C. In Tower B’s disposal channel, rubbish had been clogged for about a month, resulting in accumulation up to the third floor. Meanwhile, the situation was worse in Tower C, where rubbish had piled up to the sixth floor. As a result, residents on lower floors could no longer dispose of rubbish through the shaft and had to carry it down to the ground floor themselves.