Bantar Gebang, the biggest landfill in Southeast Asia - and a home for 3000 families - on the edge of the metropolis of Jakarta.
Bantar Gebang, the biggest landfill in Southeast Asia - and a home for 3000 families - on the edge of the metropolis of Jakarta.
Every day a thousand garbage trucks, with a total of 5.000 tonnes of waste, accounting for 7.000 cubic meters, travel from Jakarta to this downtown area.
In 1989, Jakarta decided that it had to get rid of its waste and chose this area on the outskirts of the city, in the municipality of Bekasi. While initially farmers of rice, the local population had no choice but to adapt. They have been sorting out stinking trash ever since.
Every morning the whole family climbs up the mountain of trash to wade through fresh waste in hopes of finding anything recyclable. At the end of the day they only make a total of 2-4 euros.
A pervasive, acidic rotting stench, apparent from a mile away. Black clouds of buzzing flies. Empty bottles, discarded furniture, broken flip flops and endless amounts of plastic bags, layered on an incoherent brown mud. Mountains and mountains of waste, going on for miles: There’s almost no end to this enormous garbage dump!
The trash is a paradise for rats and cats. Also chicken and goats walk around the landfill, being a food source for the villagers.
The people of Bantar Gebang don’t have insurances, holiday allowance or pension benefits. The only health service they can obtain is from two clinics in the area. People with a Bantar Gebang ID card can obtain a ‘smell’ compensation of 12 euros per month. Unfortunately, a lot of citizens don’t own this particular card, since originally they’re not from here.
Ibu Maskani has spent the past 20 years of her life in Bantar Gebang where she – and other 700 scavengers - makes a living from piling rubbish.
Without all the waste it would have been a typical Indonesian village. There is a mosque, a warung, a school and a salon with an interior that comes straight out of the garbage.