{"id":797844,"date":"2026-07-13T16:03:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T16:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/797844\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T16:03:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T16:03:10","slug":"the-trash-does-not-stop-life-among-the-garbage-mountains-of-the-worlds-biggest-city-indonesia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/797844\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018The trash does not stop\u2019: life among the garbage mountains of the world\u2019s biggest city | Indonesia"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the outskirts of Jakarta, huge rolling peaks of rubbish stretch across more than 100 hectares (247 acres), towering over nearby villages. Each day a convoy of trucks plough in and dump more garbage into one of Asia\u2019s largest landfills.<\/p>\n

Here, thousands of people live on the fringe of the site and make their income picking through the waste and salvaging scraps for resale. The work is dangerous \u2013 earlier this year seven people died after one of the massive trash mounds caved in, burying them alive.<\/p>\n

Second-generation waste pickers Rasta and his wife, Suakesih, have been collecting recyclable materials at the Bantar Gebang landfill since it opened in 1989.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just our risk here,\u201d says Rasta, 55, who salvages rubbish at the site, as he tearfully recalls the fatal event. \u201cIf we don\u2019t take the risk, well, then we don\u2019t eat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, people who rely on the site face an uncertain future as Indonesia\u2019s government grapples with how to manage swelling levels of waste in the capital, the world\u2019s largest city<\/a>. The site, known as Bantar Gebang, is well over capacity and the government wants to gradually close it from next year, raising questions over where the rubbish will go, and what will happen to those who depend on it for their livelihoods.<\/p>\n

_________________<\/p>\n

About 40km from the Indonesian capital, from a distance Bantar Gebang resembles rolling hills. Up close, the illusion disappears. An irrepressible, putrid smell hangs in the tropical air, black streams of leachate \u2013 a highly contaminated water runoff \u2013 snake between the mountains of refuse. Swarms of flies hover over every passing truck.<\/p>\n

Children play on top of a capped section of the Bantar Gebang landfill, where a geomembrane has been installed to reduce rainwater infiltration and landfill gas emissions.<\/p>\n

Every day, about 8,000 tons of rubbish arrive from Jakarta on 1,400 bright orange trucks.<\/p>\n

Among the rubbish pickers who work at the site is Andi, 29, and his wife, Winah, 43, who was born in a village near the landfill and has worked there since childhood.<\/p>\n

Each day, they earn about 100,000 to 200,000 rupiah (about AU$8-16).<\/p>\n

\u201cAlhamdulillah [Praise be to God], I wouldn\u2019t say it\u2019s a lot, but it\u2019s enough for the children\u2019s schooling and for our daily food,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\"AnAn aerial image of the landfill site<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not physically fun,\u201d he says of the work. \u201cBut working with friends, you can make a joke out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Workers tease one another as trucks rumble past in near-constant convoys.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnjay! (Whoa!)\u201d one worker shouts after spotting highly prized Aqua-branded water bottles, which fetch a higher price per kilo than other plastics.<\/p>\n

Rustini, 48, stands in front of one of the towering mounds of waste at the Bantar Gebang landfill.<\/p>\n

Rustini has spent more than three decades collecting recyclables to put her children through school, determined that they won\u2019t follow in her footsteps. She says she was \u201cincredibly proud\u201d that one of them was now working in Taiwan and another was preparing to move to Japan.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything [for my children] came from here, from even the smallest items of waste. It has provided quality education for my children to fight for their own future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Karmidi, 32, started working at the site when he was just 10. Now married with two young children, he scours waste with a hooked pole called a \u201cganco\u201d.<\/p>\n

He says the work is dirty, but he enjoys being his own boss and providing for his family.<\/p>\n

Garbage trucks queue beside one of the towering mounds of waste at the Bantar Gebang landfill, where rubbish from Indonesia\u2019s capital, Jakarta, arrives each day.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis way, we can work when we please, the trash does not stop.\u201d<\/p>\n

He works at night when it is cooler but more dangerous as he and other waste pickers weave between dump trucks, bulldozers and excavators in the dark.<\/p>\n

________________<\/p>\n

As the population of Jakarta has swelled in recent decades, Bantar Gebang has grown, becoming a dumping ground for all kinds of waste. Now, it is well over capacity and the government wants to close it down.<\/p>\n

As many as 10,000 waste pickers are believed to be living and working in and around the Bantar Gebang landfill, earning a living by collecting recyclable materials.<\/p>\n

It comes as concern has been rising across Indonesia \u2013 especially among young people \u2013 about rivers, beaches and streets that are increasingly choked with rubbish. There is also growing opposition to the burning waste.<\/p>\n

In February, Indonesia\u2019s president, Prabowo Subianto, declared a national \u201cwar\u201d on waste after leaders from South Korea described the popular tourist island of Bali as \u201cdirty\u201d.<\/p>\n

The environment ministry has told local governments to phase out all landfills that practice open dumping, including establishing sorting facilities for organic and recyclable materials.<\/p>\n

The government wants to close Bantar Gebang to general waste by the end of 2027, by gradually moving away from open dumping, the Jakarta environmental agency says, starting with orders this year for residents to separate organic waste.<\/p>\n

People sort waste in dangerous conditions.<\/p>\n

Eventually, the site will only receive \u201cresidual waste\u201d after organic and recycling materials have been removed. That will then be incinerated in a massive waste-to-energy plant, a facility that burns rubbish in a controlled environment to produce electricity. It is one of more than 30 such facilities planned by state investment agency Danantara across Indonesia \u2013 including in Bali, where construction began this month \u2013 to solve the mounting waste crisis.<\/p>\n

But campaigners question whether viable alternatives to take rubbish away from Bantar Gebang will be ready in time. Campaigners say those plants will cost billions of dollars and require proper waste segregation, something rarely practised in Indonesia.<\/p>\n

\"WorkersWorkers pick through the garbage at the Jakarta landfill<\/p>\n

In Bali, the push away from open dumping has already created havoc. When Suwung landfill closed to organic waste in April, unsorted trash piled up on the streets, fields and rivers. Much of it was burned, sending a toxic haze across parts of the tourist island. The local government was forced to partially reverse the decision, allowing organic waste back at the landfill a few days a week.<\/p>\n

Back in Jakarta, the uncertainty over Bantar Gebang\u2019s future is causing concern.<\/p>\n

Nur Azizah, a waste management expert from Gadjah Mada University, says if the site is \u201cclosed without alternatives, then game over, you will see waste everywhere\u201d.<\/p>\n

Children walk past towering mounds of waste.<\/p>\n

Despite its dangers, rubbish picker Andi says a greater fear is that Bantar Gebang will eventually close.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have hopes to make our kids happy, making sure they have enough,\u201d he says, \u201cIf it closes, what choice is there?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On the outskirts of Jakarta, huge rolling peaks of rubbish stretch across more than 100 hectares (247 acres),…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":797845,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-797844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=797844"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797844\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/797845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=797844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=797844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=797844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}