A YARN YOU MIGHT WANT TO RUBBISH

BTW: Keep on trashing - jobs depend on it

Before you screech for the editor’s phone number demanding he shred this story and its delinquent author, please read me out.

  

Leaders around the globe regularly express outrage at the megatonnes of plastic clogging waterways, polluting beaches and despoiling the environment.

No doubt reformers mean what they say, though one recent plea for firearm controls resonates: 

When a deranged gunman shot staff at the Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Maryland there was the standard gush of politicians’ sympathy - till an enraged journalist replied:  ‘We don’t want your prayers and thoughts - we want your action!’

Even if all the official statements on fixing the plastic problem meant ten less truckloads of trash had been reused or burnt (in an emission-free power-station), we’d still have a pile deeper than Merdeka Square and higher than Monas.

Wow! Let’s throw in the towel (for recycling); this is mission beyond impossible, like getting kids to stop texting.  The legend of King Canute offers a moving example of the stupidity of confronting forces bigger than ourselves .  

The 11th century ruler of the North Sea Kingdoms, seemingly reincarnated in Washington, is said to have ordered the incoming tide to halt.

This is an early example of fake news, as academics say the tale is a load of old rubbish - but, like the White House press corps, historians aren’t to be trusted.  What we can report for certain is that the beach wasn’t piled with plastic.  Had that been the case the tide might have responded to the regal edict.

My duty to personal health includes circumnavigating our suburb. Every dawn I encounter men in yellow uniforms stenciled Petugas Kebersihan, (janitors), one for every kilometer plodded.

This army of street sweepers soldiers on, seven-days a week, and still loses the battle.  Before they knock off, the sidewalks they cleaned are already splattered with garbage tossed by the uncaring.  

The workers’ lives are like Sisyphus, eternally doomed to push a rock uphill which then rolls down - but at least it’s a job.

Now imagine if the polluters reformed and took their trash home.  Then there’s be no work for the PK crew and their low-tech gear.  

They use long-handled brushwood brooms, the type common in Canute’s century and handy as pre-Airbus transport for witches.  The best besoms come from kampong crafters; no doctorate is needed to deduce that when demand drops, jobs tumble.

The Central Statistics Agency reckons more than seven million are unemployed, and many more under-employed. 

So it would be irresponsible to increase that number by chucking road gangs on the economy’s scrap heap - the logical outcome should we stop littering the highways and creeks.

The other victims would be pemulung, the men and women who rise earlier than the PK to scavenge anything salable. If we reused rubbish ourselves they’d also be elbowed aside by progress.

Let’s throw down the gauntlet (and pick it up again). Ignore the naysayers and run a national campaign to change behavior.  There’s a line in the national anthem about ‘our beloved country’.  Time to love, not just sing.

Mission impossible?  Not so. Second President Soeharto’s prolonged and intensive Keluarga Berencana family planning program pulled the brake on runaway population growth.

That was in an autocracy. With a democracy  electors can chose to ignore urgings  unenforced by laws. Absent is the political will.

The default position is to do nothing. Eventually nature will adapt.  A new organism will evolve, as we did, from the primeval slime, and devour the discards. 

The process is already underway. It’s no longer possible to see plastic floating on Tondano, the largest lake in North Sulawesi.

That’s because it’s smothered by a green carpet of eceng gondok, the water hyacinth that spreads faster than rumors in an election year. 

OK, it’s still pollution and killing fish; but at least it’s natural. \\

First published in The Jakarta Post Saturday 22 September

MERDEKA! FREEDOM TO TRASH

Rubbishing the Republic

This is the year of Wonderful Indonesia, hopefully netting more than US$9 billion [Rp 126 trillion] from foreigner visitors.  Visa free entry has become available to scores of nationalities in a bid to boost arrivals lured by the promise of vistas green and clean.  Sadly many will be disappointed.  Duncan Graham reports:

When Younglive Suban (right) was driving in New Hampshire he behaved like any Indonesian.  He tossed his cigarette butt out of the window without checking the rear vision mirror.

Tailing him was a patrol car.  “Young man, do you know what you just did?” asked the cop after pulling the student over. “Do you think the US highway is your ashtray?” The fine for littering was US$ 500 [Rp 7 million] but the officer was compassionate.

“That taught me a lesson,” recalled Suban who now manages a two-hectare upmarket tourist resort in North Sulawesi.

“I’d never thought like that before.  I changed my ways. Now back in Indonesia the car is my garbage can when I’m out driving.  I wish others would do the same.”

Amen. It’s not difficult to locate lookouts across tumbling green hills – just spot a pile of rubbish.  If heading into the forest follow the trails of drink bottles and cans.  Well-prepared adventurers include a knife and dye marker in their backpacks.

The first is to carve your famous name into tree trunks, the second to scribble an immortal message on any flat surface.  What to say? The current trend is for something obscene – that’s always good for a laugh.

“It’s sad, not funny,” said Basaria Tiara, second-in-charge of the Minahasa Regency Tourist Department.  “Of course it wouldn’t take long for a couple of men and a small truck to collect the mess and do some basic clean ups.

“The problem is this: Who is responsible and where’s the budget? Is it the department dealing with roads, or parks, or health or education? When the Reformasi policy came in after the fall of Soeharto [1998] the regions took over many jobs but there’s been little coordination.

“Money for capital works is available, but not maintenance.  If we put out bins they get stolen.”

One of most publicised inland tourist attractions in North Sulawesi is Bukit Kasih [variously translated as Hill of Love or Hill of Mercy.]  It’s a multi-faith 950-step journey round a smoking, steaming amphitheatre of raw geo-thermal activity.

Although only opened in 2004 the place is now so badly damaged that it’s more liability than asset. Acid rain from the sulphuric fumes has eroded the infrastructure and stained the kitsch statues. Some walkways are impassable.  Visitors hoping to find a place of peace are harassed by touts.

 “That’s what happens when you let officials run tourism,” said Suban, a dedicated disciple of private enterprise.

“The government is doing a good job publicising Indonesia abroad and helping draw in tourists, but they must also look at the infrastructure and understand the market. It has several segments – not all want to sit at poolsides drinking.

“Many want to explore and learn.  I feel ashamed when I take people to a site and find garbage.”

The problem is nationwide. Environment and Forestry Ministry waste management director Sudirman recently told a seminar there were so many problems with rubbish in Indonesia that he was thinking about declaring a state of emergency. 

Before talking to J Plus Suban and his business colleagues from the Himpunan Pramuwisata Indonesia [Indonesian Tourism Group HPI] where he’s secretary, spent a day picking waste off the beach in Manado.  The capital of North Sulawesi is famous as the base for exploring the Bunaken National Marine Park.

Divers come from around the world to marvel at the coral wonderland – but get offended by pollution. From the top floor of a harbor-front hotel pods of plastic can be seen swirling in the bay below.

“Maintaining a clean environment is really the government’s job,” said Suban.  “They don’t do it, so we have to.  It’s not just foreigners who want cleanliness – so do we.”

HPI vice president Freddy Siwi, who runs a backpacker lodge in Tomohon mainly catering for locals, thinks the answer to making Indonesians care is to turn trash into cash.  He’s started a collection centre for plastics and cardboard and plans to buy a machine to compress the refuse ready for sale to recyclers.

“We need a system of reward and punishment to make an impact,” he said. “If there are laws against littering they’re ignored.”

One of North Sulawesi’s must-see sites is the 1,324 meter Mount Mahawu and its green crater lake, though often shrouded in cloud. A good road leads to the park office.  There’s space to park and a sturdy staircase to the summit. Signs against shooting, logging and littering appear to indicate discipline, though many have been targeted by graffiti goons.

The Bern family from Belgium obviously thought the notices inadequate; they left a sack at the entrance with a ‘Save the nature’ message shaming others to drop their empties in their bag, not the bush.

Tiara denied that Indonesians don’t love their country. “A clean environment isn’t just for tourists,” she said. “It’s also important for our lives, our health and our children.  We just need a mindset change.

“If we have good places travellers will come.  The government doesn’t listen to locals but maybe they’ll pay attention to people from overseas.  So please speak out.”

Clean up Australia

Indonesian visitors to Australia 25 years ago would have found the land to their liking. A night drive in the bush was enhanced by the glint of discarded beer cans marking the road shoulders. The more cans the closer to a town and its liquor shops.

Those days are largely gone thanks largely to the inspiration and determination of builder and yachtsman Ian Kiernan. While sailing in the late 1980s he was appalled at the pollution of Sydney Harbor.

With a few mates he organized a litter lift; to everyone’s surprise about 40,000 volunteers arrived to pick up 5,000 tonnes.  Clearly the mood had swung towards environmental care.  That drew political interest so governments got involved.

The Clean Up Australia campaign was born as a not-for-profit organization. The public backed Kiernan, now 75, because he came across as a rugged individual who cared and had no other agenda. In 1994 he was made Australian of the Year.

Parallel with the widespread collections of garbage has been legislation. Most states impose fines of AUD $400 [Rp 4 million] for litterers.

(breakout 2)

Only losers litter

Like Manado and the Minahasa highlands, Malang in East Java is an internationally-known tourist town.  It also has knock-out scenery, enhanced by ancient cultural sites nearby.  The temples of the 14^{th and} 15^th century Majapahit era draw visitors, along with a cooler climate.

Malang labels itself ‘green’ and ‘flower city’, but also has a trash problem, particularly in waterways.

Despite signs forbidding dumping in rivers and beauty spots, these are headstones in cemeteries of plastic and food scraps – rodents’ picnic grounds.  Building rubble is tipped in any open space, often near houses.

“It’s a worry we are trying to combat in several ways,” said Ismintarti, head of the public parks section in the local government. “Many don’t care because they think it’s not in their backyard.  But the city is their backyard - and ours. My staff have to pick up what they drop, and that’s not right.

“We are making Malang more beautiful through growing and planting flowers, so citizens enjoy and respect.”  The city has a splendid but little known nursery that could compete with botanical gardens overseas.

“We ask residents to accept personal responsibility and not assume cleanliness is solely someone else’s job,” she said. “We’re using traditional means like posters, and social media to get the message across.  We also employ an Environment Ambassador.”

Shinta Maulidya, 19, the lady with this fine title, spends her days talking to children and young adults.  Drop your Styrofoam cup in a park and you’re likely to get a tap on the shoulder from a pretty teen instead of a burly cop.  “I ask them to put their trash in the right place,” she said. “They are starting to take notice.” 

It’s pointless arguing - Maulidya is a debating champion, speaks good English and has the law on her side. Fines of Rp 100,000 [US$7.25] can be imposed and smoking in parks in prohibited – a rule widely ignored.

Said Ismintarti: “It’s social engineering. Changing people’s behavior takes time.  Are we getting cleaner?”  She paused for a moment. “Yes.  I really think we are. But still far to go.”

First published in J-Plus - The Jakarta Post 21 February 2016

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TURNING WASTE INTO STOCK FEED

RUBBISH? THAT’S JUST CHICKEN FEED © Duncan Graham 2006

Foreigners often face difficulties starting a business in Indonesia. But the faults aren’t all with this country. Duncan Graham reports:


Last May bureaucrats and potential investors of East Java were expecting to get the first local lab figures of an important analysis: Would the results show that chicken food made from Surabaya’s waste would be nutritious and palatable to poultry?

Probably. Hens will eat anything – even each other. But this project – which needs a US $25 million (Rp 20 billion) investment - had to convince people.

“There’s a lot of sceptics in the government particularly in animal husbandry, but I’m pretty optimistic,” said Surabayan businessman Ron Kho. “Once this gets up and running everyone will want to be involved.”

His partner Sam Salpietro from Western Australia, whose company BioCulture is pushing the idea to convert foul refuse into fowl food, was equally upbeat:

“This is the only project that can be considered a viable and commercial operation,” he said. “There’s no need for subsidies or government funding.”

But then the idea hit the speed bumps. Dissatisfied with local lab procedures the partners decided to get another opinion of their product – in Australia.

Sending anything organic into the country next door is difficult enough. When the material is processed trash the problems compound.

“No-one has ever wanted to import rubbish into Australia before,” said Salpietro. “We were told it would be easy – but the bureaucratic problems were incredible.”

Nonetheless they’ve been overcome and six months later the partners have their analysis from the Western Australian government’s chemical laboratory – which they’ll be presenting to potential investors in Surabaya today (21 Dec).

The figures certainly look good - like most projections before a factory is built. Every day the folk of Indonesia’s second biggest city produce 3,000 tonnes of rubbish destined for the tip.

The overall quantity is much higher, but efficient scavengers pull tonnes of plastic, glass, wood and other recyclables out of the refuse long before it gets to the landfill.

Now imagine a low-tech process where about half that waste could be converted into chicken pellets that could be sold at a profit. The garbage pits would then last twice as long in a land where space is needed for the living, not their waste.

‘Where there’s muck, there’s money,’ has long been a truism as many millionaires know. If a job is unpleasant people prefer to have someone else get their hands dirty.

In the West those hands are mightily expensive so the costs of processing waste into anything useful is prohibitive. But not in Indonesia.

“There’s no doubt this project can only work in developing countries where labour is cheap,” Kho said. “Most of the work is manual. It requires teams of people sorting through refuse on a moving table and rejecting everything inorganic.

“The foods and plants which do get through will be cooked and processed to remove impurities. Extra nutrients will be added and the mix forced through an extruder to make pellets.”

So far Kho has processed 300 kilograms using manual gear assembled in his paint pigment factory, PT Holland Colours Asia. The extrusion process is much the same so there’s a fit with his present plant. However heating and other controls will need to be adapted.

“We reckon we can make high quality poultry feed for about US $ 75 (Rp 700,000) a tonne when other manufacturers are charging US $250 (Rp 2.25 million) a tonne,” he said.

“So there’s a lot of space to play. We hope existing animal feed companies will want to invest.”

OK so far. Now consider the difficulties: Manufacturers of any product want their raw materials to be of a consistent quality, easily measured. But no two truckloads of rubbish will ever be the same.

And how will the BioCulture managers ensure that every noxious object is spotted and doesn’t make it into the organic waste? Watching rubbish roll by hour upon hour is not a fun pastime, even if the bosses are paying top rupiah for nimble fingers and sharp eyes as they promise to do.

When Mum tosses out her supply of birth control pills because it’s time to start a family and the drugs get into the chicken food, there could be some curious results. Contraceptive hormones in Australian sewage discharged into the sea are already reported to be doing funny things to fish.

Then there’s the danger of transmitting Frankenstein ailments like Mad Cow disease if certain animal products get into the feed. Dead rats seem to be a significant component of Surabaya’s rubbish.

Kho stressed that these and other hazards had been considered. The organic waste would be pasteurised to kill any toxins. Continuous laboratory tests would pick any unforeseens and reject suspect feed.

Magnets would pull out anything metallic and closed circuit TV would monitor every stage. The sorters would work in teams each focussing on only one type of waste. “The end product has to be food quality,” said Salpietro.

The other hurdle is the lack of an up-and-running plant. Potential investors might be more enthusiastic if they could actually see a real banging, clanking, steaming operation rather than a Power Point presentation.

Salpietro acknowledged the problem: “Someone has to be a pioneer. We don’t have the money, but would be prepared to be shareholders. We’ve already spent about AUD $1 million (Rp 7,000 million) and five years to get this far.

“People from all over the world keep coming to Indonesia and saying: ‘We can solve your waste problems.’ They can – but someone has to pay. This system generates income.”

“We expected a 30 per cent organic recovery but in fact the pilot yielded 50 per cent,” Kho said.

“We reckon it will cost about US $20 - $25 million to build a viable plant on about five hectares, and take around 18 months to construct. Capital return should be rapid.

“We’d prefer a joint venture with the government to ensure continuous supplies of waste – maybe around 20 per cent of the capital.

“I don’t normally like dealing with governments but with this project there have been no bribes asked or given.”

(First published in The Jakarta Post January ? 2007)

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