'Waste management at home not feasible'

Domestic waste accounts for between 50 percent and 60 percent of the capital's 6,000 tons of daily waste. Urban experts say waste management should start at home and concern all residents. The Jakarta Post talked to people about their handling of domestic waste.

Hari, 34, is a freelance writer who lives with his wife and two children in Tebet, South Jakarta:

We don't sort our garbage at home. We just put all the garbage in a plastic bag and throw it in the receptacle outside the house. A garbage man picks it up every other day. He doesn't sort it into organic and nonorganic waste, he just throws everything onto his cart.

The South Jakarta municipality's suggestion that everyone buries their organic waste is not feasible. How many people in Jakarta have a yard? I have a front yard, but it is too small.

I agree with managing garbage in the home, but in Jakarta it would only be fusible for garbage men to sort the garbage. The administration should provide different bags for organic and nonorganic waste.

Aan, 35, works for the city administration. She lives in Depok, south of Jakarta, with her husband and daughter:

I rarely separate our organic waste from the nonorganic. After it is collected, I really don't know what happens to it.

Dealing with our own garbage sounds good, but implementing it would be almost impossible. As for burying organic waste, Jakartans would have a hard time finding enough land to do it. Jakarta is too crowded.

--The Jakarta Post