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| Community Waste Management Enterprises |
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| How the program began |
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| In Bali, most household waste is either burned, thrown into river beds or buried. This practice comes from the lack of understanding that modern waste is different in nature to the largely organic wastes that were produced in Bali until recently. The infrastructure provided by the local government for waste collection is expensive (Rp10,000 per month) an additional household cost that many families struggling to get by are unable to justify.
These factors are the root of what is today an enormous waste management problem on Bali, which is causing increasing environmental and sanitary degradation for the island and its people.
Yayasan IDEP is very happy to be sponsoring an innovative pilot program which is working through Bali’s PKK (village level women’s association) to establish a simple and effective system for addressing some of these increasing waste management problems.
Through this program some of the village’s household wastes are sold to local garbage collectors at a small profit. The program therefore offers two key benefits, regular income for the women’s group and a sustainable solution for keeping the village cleaner. Income from the project is used by the PKK to support other community initiatives in their area.
The program was initiated and implemented by a local branch of the Indonesian Women’s Organization (PKK) in Kutuh Kelod, Ubud, with support through Yayasan IDEP thanks to a grant from the Norwegian Student’s Group.
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| How the community based waste management program works |
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| To date 160 women have been organized by the head of their PKK (local women’s group) to sort plastic and paper in their own homes. On a regular basis, these women bring their individual home’s recycleable waste to a central bin which was built with donated funds from local village authorities.
The project leader, head of the PKK in the village, has made an agreement with ‘pemulung’ (Javanese rubbish collectors) to buy the materials from the group. The ‘pemulung’ take the materials to a centralized waste collection depot in Denpasar, where they are cleaned and processed. From there the wastes are resold to buyers that either recycle them at factories in Java, and / or sell them to export buyers from overseas.
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| Plans for further development of this successful program |
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This PKK has received recognition from the local government for its innovative and successful initiative, which has helped to increase the women’s enthusiasm for the program. Yayasan IDEP would like to further support this successful community-based micro enterprise program. Our aim is to:
• Expand the scope of this initial pilot program by introducing the techniques to other areas of Bali through other chapters of the PKK groups.
• Expand the depth of the program by providing trainings and community seminars which can strengthen the participating communities’ understanding of the importance of better waste management at the household level.
• Provide the participating communities (community gathering places and schools) with public awareness campaigns about sound waste management. Click here to see some samples of these effective tools for increasing community understanding about waste management and the environment.
• Conduct workshops in compost production to turn un-recycleable organic household wastes into a useful resource for home scale gardening.
• Support the establishment of kitchen and medicinal gardens for the women’s groups.
• Initiate the production of cloth bags which can be used to reduce the use of plastic bags within the communities. For villages in close proximity to tourism areas, this initiative can be expanded into a small industry which can produce and sell the bags to tourists.
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| How you can help |
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| This program is self sustainable and simple to manage. It offers a viable, grass roots solution for Balinese communities who face enormous waste management problems. It has received recognition by the local government as an outstanding effort by Balinese women to solve their own problems. Financial support for the ongoing development and expansion of this pilot will facilitate the extension of these programs to other communities in Bali. If you are interested in supporting this program please contact us for more details.
If you are interested in supporting this program please contact us for more details, if you are ready to pledge you support now please go to our donations page.
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