Photos: Indonesian cash for trash
Updated On Aug 17, 2019 02:47 PM IST
Indonesia's crackdown on imported foreign waste has upset the village of Bangun, where residents say they earn more money sorting through piles of garbage than growing rice in once-lush paddy fields. Overwhelmed by a spike in waste imports after China closed its doors to foreign garbage, Indonesia has tightened import rules and customs inspections, sending hundreds of tonnes of foreign waste back to their origin countries.
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Updated on Aug 17, 2019 02:47 PM IST
Indonesia’s crackdown on imported foreign waste has upset the village of Bangun, where residents say they earn more money sorting through piles of garbage than growing rice in once-lush paddy fields. The front and backyards of homes in Bangun overflow with waste on land that once had been used to grow rice. (Willy Kurniawan / REUTERS)
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Updated on Aug 17, 2019 02:47 PM IST
Heri Masud (L), a waste broker, prepares to unload rubbish from a truck at Bangun village in Mojokerto, East Java province, Indonesia. Overwhelmed by a spike in waste imports after China closed its doors to foreign garbage, Indonesia has tightened import rules and customs inspections, sending hundreds of tonnes of foreign waste back to their origin countries. (Willy Kurniawan / REUTERS)
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Green groups praised the crackdown, but Bangun residents say restricting trash from countries like the United States, Canada and Australia will wipe out a key source of income. “If they’re going to forbid us from this, there must be a solution. The government hasn’t provided us jobs,” said Heri Masud as he took a break from sifting through rubbish piled high around the village of 3,600 people. (Willy Kurniawan / REUTERS)
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Updated on Aug 17, 2019 02:47 PM IST
Sunarni receives money from a scavenger after they unload rubbish at Bangun village. Masud said the money from sorting trash is used to fund activities such as sending villagers on the Haj pilgrimage to Islam’s holiest sites in Saudi Arabia. Every year 17-20 people from this village go on a Haj. That’s funded from this waste. (Willy Kurniawan / REUTERS)
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Portraits of Salam, 54, and his grandson Rayhan Fastabichul Khoirot are displayed inside Salam’s house. Salam said recycled rubbish paid for his children’s schooling, and also bought a house for his family and livestock. “I have nine goats now,” said Salam, who works as a waste broker between villagers and a nearby paper factory and says his job is easier than farming. (Willy Kurniawan / REUTERS)
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While it may be more lucrative, the piles of garbage are a threat to villagers’ health, environmentalists say. Research by the green group ECOTON found microplastics had polluted groundwater in Bangun and in the nearby Brantas river used for drinking water by 5 million people in the area. (Willy Kurniawan / REUTERS)
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Children lay down as they play on pile of rubbish. Indonesia imported 283,000 tonnes of plastic waste last year, up 141% from a year earlier. The country is the second biggest contributor of plastic pollutants in the world’s oceans, according to a 2015 study. (Willy Kurniawan / REUTERS)
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Updated on Aug 17, 2019 02:47 PM IST