These four pemulung, or trashpickers, make a living from recycling waste at a Gianyar rubbish dump. They are (from left to right) Hussein, Junadi, Gizal and Saiful. (JP/J.B. Djwan)
Wading through rubbish dumps in search of plastic bags, bottles or cardboard he can sell for recycling is how 27-year-old Junadi makes just enough money for his daily rice.
Along with the hundreds of other pemulung (trash pickers) across Indonesia, Junadi makes his living out of what the rest of us throw away.
Originally from Probolingo in East Java, Junadi made the move to Bali earlier this year in the hope of improving his life.
"I heard there was a better chance to find work here than at home, so I moved here this year. At home there was no work and many other people are looking for jobs there so I came here.
"I would have liked to have started a rubbish collection business there, but I did not have the capital to start," says Junadi, kitted out in the gum boots essential for working in a rubbish dump.
The trash sorted and collected by Junadi is sold and sent to Banyuwangi or Surabaya for recycling. Before claiming the local tip as his treasure trove, Junadi was a cycling pemulung, traveling many kilometers per day in search of reusable rubbish.
"I used to live in Sakah and had a bicycle to collect rubbish, but the price for rubbish has gone down so I can make better money here digging through the rubbish," says Junadi, who works with his friend, 21 year-old Hussein, also from Java.
They earn between Rp 50,000 and Rp 80,000 per week as subcontract workers, an amount well below the local minimum wage of around Rp 500,000 per month.
Getting by on around Rp 10,000 per day is tough, the two men say, but they survive by being economical and sharing what they have.
"It's pretty hard. The price of rubbish has gone down by 60 percent, but rice is going up. We get by throughhidup irit, economical living," Junadi says.
"We also live in a group and everyone puts in so we share costs. You could not survive on 10,000 a day if you lived alone."
Other members of this Gianyar pemulung group are Gizel and Saiful, both from Jember in East Java.
Gizel, now 18, travels about 30 kilometers a day on his bicycle, searching out rubbish that is then dropped at a Gianyar depot.
On a good day, Gizel can scavenge out 100 kilograms or more of recyclable waste -- all carried in his saddlebags. He has been working as a pemulung since he was just 13 years old -- an age when most kids are at school.
"My parents could not afford to pay for my schooling, so I became a pemulung," says Gizel, adding he moved to Bali some years ago "looking for experience".
Of the team, only 24-year-old Saiful has a motorbike, purchased with a high-interest loan. The motorbike allows him to travel greater distances in search of saleable waste, such as iron, old saucepans, electric cabling or old buckets.
"Until a month ago I could earn Rp 50,000 a day," Saiful says.
"Out of that I had to pay for petrol and the motorbike loan. Now I can earn, at best, Rp 30,000 per day and fuel has gone up. We've heard this is because of the global financial crisis. It is getting really hard, we have all really been feeling it this past month."
Now, he says, raising the Rp 400,000 per month needed to pay off his motorbike is almost impossible.
Like scavengers in the animal kingdom, pemulung are often unwelcome in villages across the country, despite the role they play in recycling and removing waste.
Many towns in Bali have signs to warn off these workers, who are literally scratching out a living in rubbish dumps.
"There are some places that we can't enter because we are seen as bad people," says Junadi. "It is true there are some bad pemulung. Like everyone else we have the good and the bad."
All four pemulung say what they want in life is to make a success of themselves. For Gizel that means buying a motorbike so he can travel further to scavenge; to Junadi, success means running the show.
"I want to be successful in my life, even if that is just as a pemulung. I'd like to make it to be a pemulungboss," Junadi says, adding that he enjoys his work. "We like our job. It's the only one we can get, so we have no choice but to like it."
And while life as a pemulung is tough, the hardest part for these young men is being far from home.
"We all miss our families in Java. If we had money we would go home to visit, but it is really difficult to do that," Junadi says, still digging through the rubbish dump that allows him to survive.
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar