'Waste management at home not feasible'

'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