Vermicomposting vs. mall-building

Vermicomposting vs. mall-building

As yet another controversy flares over waste management and
garbage disposal in the metropolis, ought not there to be a more
holistic approach taken to the problem?

A considerable element of this problem appears to come in the
form of plastic for bottles, cartons and bags, which, as we all
know, are simply thrown away in the casual manner in drains and
on patches of waste ground.

A consumer campaign directed at the public to purchase durable
shopping bag and, to reject plastic bags at supermarkets and
outlets such as Carrefour, which in turn should be persuaded to
move quickly away from plastic, seems to be in order.

I, for one, make a conscious effort to give back superfluous
plastic wrappings where possible and to recycle those such as
come on greetings cards for other purposes. Bottle banks should
be set up by the Jakarta Metropolitan administration (DKI) for
mineral water bottle collection.

An imaginative approach to the enormous problem of food waste
would go some way to dealing with that element, and might be
copied from Japan, where legislation is in place requiring
restaurants and others to recycle a certain percentage of such
waste.

Local composting initiatives using the vermicomposting (use of
worms in the process) technique are not impossible and can help
generate income from micro-gardening of vegetables; this could be
done on a neighborhood-to-neighborhood basis, provided small-
scale credit could be made available.

Of course, in a city where the governor spends much energy
promoting massage-stroking statuary and environmentally ruinous
projects such as the intended coastal reclamation scheme whilst
evicting the most vulnerable, this may be too much too ask.

It may be too much to ask of this particular governor to leave
aside the conceits of a mall-building, property development
culture to look at the waste and other problems in a more
sympathetic fashion.

DAVID JARDINE
Jakarta