These past few months, we’ve been trying sorting our trash and sending our recyclables to a nearby trash bank and have finally become conscious of just how much we were sending to the landfill. That, the regular sights of Citarum river and reads like this, this or this have since convinced us to make changes to the way we consume (tips to be published in the coming weeks) as well as start a conversation with the management office of our compound around sorting and composting (slow process but worth a shot anyways!).
For those who live close to Menteng, here are the details of the trash bank we’ve been using:
Donate & drop off your recyclable trash every Monday from 10-1pm at jl. Malang no 22, Menteng (ask for our Bank Sampah employee Pak Parno and only give the recyclables to him).
Materials accepted include:
1. All kinds of PLASTIC bottles, caps, packaging & containers .
2. Newspaper, cardboard, boxes and other PAPER packaging.
3. Aluminium cans, caps and other METAL materials.
4. GLASS jars and others.
5. Used/broken electronics, CD/DVDs.
The trashbank will sort and resell the recyclables and use that money to pay its employees.
There are other initiatives around the city but they were really hard to find until the Facebook group Going Green in Jakarta was created. An amazing community gathering a wealth of information on eco-friendly living in the Big Durian: contact details of local trash banks, inspiration from people who have managed to get their compound to start sorting and recycling, where to find green products… And for those who have the time and would like to get involved, the group also organizes regular meetups to discuss concrete actions to be taken.