Waste management on Pulau Pemana 8.352349° S, 122.319460° E
nina van toulon
Born @ 314.8 ppm CO? - Founder Indonesian Waste Platform, co-initiator International Waste Platform, environmental activist, amplifying news related to the #PlanetaryBoundaries, promoting collective action
Our focus at Indonesian Waste Platform is on building stakeholder networks and developing a model for waste management in remote and rural regions.
Our approach is based on the principles of collective impact, building a systematic approach together with communities and all relevant stakeholders in a particular area. We fine-tuned this approach with communities on several islands in the Komodo National Park near Labuan Bajo in West Manggarai district, always with the intention that our model should be replicable in other locations, adapted to the local situation, geographical situation and with and by the local stakeholder network.
Now we have taken a big new step forward, by supporting an island community far away from Labuan Bajo, to replicate our model and together with the village leaders on Pemana island improve their waste management skills, reduce littering, dumping and open burning and to keep recyclables in the circular loop.
This is a recap of events. We made many pictures and short and longer video’s to illustrate what we have been doing. To get a better impression of these days we recommend you click on the video links below.
A few weeks ago we received a call for action from Pemana Island to assist the community with solutions for the waste problems on the island. Mr. Sayudin, head of the local tourism group sent us a video of a truck dumping waste on the beach.
On 25th July we travelled from Labuan Bajo to Maumere, the capital of district Sikka.
What followed was a chain of events
On 26 July 2024 we met with the head of the Sikka governmental Environmental department and representatives of the Sikka Tourism Department, to explain the reasons of our visit to Pemana island and to ask for their approval and official permission for our intervention on the island.
We showed the video to the head of the department.? He gave us permission to go.
Next stop was a visit to the Maumere landfill - Tempat Pembuangan Akhir (TPA)
We needed to assess the situation there, because our aim is to move waste from Pemana to the Maumere landfill. The landfill is located about 12 km west out of town on a hillside. We spoke with several waste pickers on the site. Waste on the landfill is intentionally burned to create more space. When a new truckload arrives the waste pickers go through the piles to pick out PET bottles, PP cups and cans. The cans are compiled and burned in piles to soften the metal. They explained they do that to make it easier to flatten them. They work for a middleman and told us they can earn between 800.000 and 300.000 IDR per month.
These short videos give a good impression of the TPA?
Then we went back to Maumere to visit a local recycling company
We were not allowed to take pictures inside the premisses, we did receive a tour. The company has two large adjacent warehouses with many staff sorting through mountains of materials. A 20ft container was being loaded with scrap metal. Later that evening we met with the owner of the company to discuss collaboration for the recyclables from Pemana.?
We went shopping to buy a few hundred karung, large bags to transport waste, to take with us to the island.
On 27 July we took the 5.30 am ferry to Pemana, a 2,5 hour journey
We were joined by 4 environmentalists from Maumere, all student leaders of the UNIPALA (University of Maumere) mountaineering club. This group - founded years ago by my colleague Marta Muslin (Ica) - has a few hundred members, all dedicated to environmental causes.
Arrival on Pulau Pemana
On Pemana we received an overwhelming welcome from the head of the village, the local women group and hundreds of school kids and their teachers had lined up along the road. Both Ica and me received a traditional ceremonial greeting; rice grains were thrown on our heads and we received a locally woven Sonke, which is a great honour.
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Together with the kids from the 5 village schools we cleaned along the waterfront. 43 bags of litter were collected, to be weighed the next day.
?Videos of the community clean-up:
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After the cleanup we were invited to join a wedding with lunch. https://youtu.be/yBoQ9GyfTOs
Later that afternoon took a boat to visit Sayudin’s coral rehabilitation site
During the 1992 Maumere tsunami the whole reef in front of the island had been destroyed. Sayudin has singlehandedly built amazing cement structures which now rest at the seabed to allow new corals to grow. The holes in these structures are a safe haven for fish.
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That evening we were hosted for dinner by the head of the village and made the plan for the cleanup on the beach shown in the video. We were told that the beach is the official landfill (TPA) of the village. We planned to meet at 7 a.m. the next morning, together with the local women group, head of the village, Sayudin and the vehicle used for waste disposal at the site.
28th July clean-up at Pemana TPA
7 a.m. turned out to be 8 a.m., by which time it was already quite hot to clean. The TPA is about a 10-minute walk outside the village.
At first glance we knew that it would be impossible to clean the whole site. The sight of any landfill is overwhelming. To see a landfill directly at the seaside is more than overwhelming, it is actually a ‘sea-fill’, because you know that the hightide flushes this trash straight into the ocean.
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We started with measuring the length of the dumpsite: 8.5 meter.
Since the amount of dumped waste was humongous, we decided to focus on retrieving PET bottles, PP cups and HDPE plastics and instructed the whole clean-up team to only put those in separate karung and collect the non-recyclables in other bags.?
Ica gave a pep-talk to the ladies about the impact of this dumping on their village, harming their health and livelihood, harming their fish. https://youtu.be/PEc3-YBPc34 ?
Then we started cleaning.
After 45 minutes we stopped, because it was too hot to continue.
The bags were loaded on the small truck, which drove several times back and forth to bring all bags back to the village.?
Then the weighing started, the bags with materials collected on the first day and the bags with materials collected from the TPA.?
After the weighing Fidel announced the result to the community
During these 2 days we removed 1372 kilo waste from the environment, 1264 kilo non-recyclables and only 118 kilo recyclable plastics.
Our suggested solution to improve waste management on Pemana
Ica shared in more detail about the history of IWP and our proposed solution for future waste management in the village.
Ica again elaborated how this litter and open burning affects people's health. In the village fish is dried in the sun and piles of burning plastics next to the drying fish releases toxic chemicals and soot, contaminating their food, causing all sorts of diseases.
Ica explained the strategy of waste segregation at household level to the women group, because they are the ones to organize this: #PilihSampahDariRumah (segregate your waste at home). All households are to be provided with karung to store the non-organic recyclables and non-recyclables in separate bags.
The UNIPA group in Maumere will be provided with a truck to collect all bags on a regular schedule by 2-way journey by ferry.
The UNIPA group will transport the recyclables to the Maumere recycling company and the non-recyclables to the Maumere landfill.?
This means 2 new MBRC cleaning hubs are now established, one on Pemana and one in Maumere; IWP will monitor the progress, compile the data and do site visits.
Reduction of single-use plastics and awareness about open burning of plastics
We suggested to the women group leaders to promote reduction of single-use plastics in the community, for example use refilling from gallons and bring their own glasses from home at festivities in the village and bring a reusable bag when shopping in the local shops.
We shared our anti-burning poster to Sayudin, to print and disseminate the posters in the village, to raise more awareness. https://www.indonesianwaste.org/open-waste-burning-program/ ? ?
And we asked one of our IWP advisors to help find a donor in Jakarta for books about a variety of environmental topics for the new local Rumah Baca Komunitas – the new public library in the village.
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Meanwhile: we chartered a wooden boat to bring all bags back to Maumere.
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Then it was time to leave and bid our farewells to Pemana community?
It took us 2.5 hours to reach the mainland. The head of the village and Sayudin joined us on the boat.
Once arrived the non-recyclable waste was taken to the Maumere TPA and the recyclable plastics were collected by the local recycling company.
Non-recyclables loaded on a truck to be deposited at the Maumere TPA https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ss9BA1eyzU0
Recyclables picked up by the manager of the recycling company, to be further sorted in their warehouse and shipped to Java recycling factories https://www.youtube.com/shorts/A1q8ZPERk1w
We had a quick farewell lunch Maumere with the UNIPA team, head of the village, Sayudin and our team and after that we all made our way back home? direction Labuan Bajo.
To conclude
None of this would have been possible without the leadership of my colleague Ica, the continuous financial support of our donor MBRC the ocean / Sven Jacobi and his team, the UNIPA volunteer team, the Sikka Environmental department & Tourism Department, the head of Kampung Pemana, the school kids and local women group, our IWP team members and the local hero mr. Sayudin. It was Sayudin who took the initiative to call for our assistance.
And
It must be clear that producers / brand owners must change their ways and take responsibility for the global plastic crisis.
Anyone who has read this recap and watched our video and photo illustrations and the data of the non-recyclable collected waste during only these two days and the remaining waste on this particular ‘sea-fill’ can perfectly understand that the tap on plastic production needs to close, alternative delivery models and refilling must be advanced and any packaging needs to be designed for 100% recyclability. Extended Producer Responsibility must be implemented to support advancing collection systems and education to increase waste-literacy.
This village is only one of thousands in Indonesia.
?? Bersama Kita Bersihkan Tanah Air??Together We Clean The Nation ??
Ica & Nina
Large Complex Deal Engagement expert, Interim Management, B2B Sales, Business Development Management - Cloud, ICT Networks and Services. Software Sales, Sales & Growth Consulting, Strategy, Business Transformation.
3 个月nina van toulon Thanks for sharing, brought back a lot of memories
Agri/Food Consultant & Developer | EU to USA | Launch, Growth, Turnaround | Ex-Farming TIC COO/CMO | Organic ?? Grower | Certification, Food Safety, PFAS Phytoremediation, Regeneration, Sustainability | ?????| ???????
3 个月Ken Drew Marcus Vesters
Born @ 314.8 ppm CO? - Founder Indonesian Waste Platform, co-initiator International Waste Platform, environmental activist, amplifying news related to the #PlanetaryBoundaries, promoting collective action
3 个月Tag Lisa Bracken Jonathan Needham