from the horizon

I’m pretty open minded when it comes to other cultures, and different values, but there is one thing which I just don’t get in Indonesia: what they do with their rubbish.

People seem to have a totally different attitudes toward a clean environment. Although the will keep the insides of their houses spotless, there is so much rubbish littered all over the place. Piles of rubbish collect in open spaces and the open sewer, people are quite happy to throw rubbish on the ground, or out of vehicles. It’s been said that in developing countries people are used to all the rubbish biodegrading, and the problem is with all the plastics and other such materials which have been introduced from the West. When I order food here, it is wrapped up in a banana leaf and paper, then put in a plastic bag (the sort they use for everything), which always makes me cringe.

I think there is definitely a need for some social reconditioning here. We have had the “Be a Tidy Kiwi” campaign in New Zealand for ages, and I can remember the risk of being put on “clean up” duty if caught littering at school. None of that seems to be important here. In a city affected by conflict, devastated by a tsunami and with already high poverty rates, it might not be such a high priority. However it seem like not littering is a small thing which all people can contribute to – and benefit from.

Even when the rubbish is collected here, it seems the primary means of disposal is to burn it. At night there will be lots of little fires around the neighborhood, as people dispose of all of their household rubbish and garden waste. The plumes of black smoke rising into the air also make me cringe!
I do wonder if burning the rubbish could be used to generate electricity, but for such small amounts, it’s probably not worth it – and I’d hate to encourage people to keep burning their rubbish.

However, since moving into my own house (more on that later), I’ve been responsible for disposing of my own rubbish, and have resigned myself to the fact of burning it as well. So last weekend, I collected all of my rubbish, and made my own little fire in the backyard, which freaked out the monkey (did I mention that I had a monkey in my backyard?). I also took the opportunity to clean up all of the rubbish which was also scattered throughout my backyard. To my credit I would like to mention that I separate all biodegradables, and have made a compost heap – which seems to be a completely foreign concept here. With the tropical climate, I hope this will produce fertile soil from growing some more plants here.

The day after my clean up, I went outside and was shocked to find even more rubbish scattered throughout my back yard!!! Had the neighbors just thrown their rubbish over the fence? I was furious. On closer inspection I released that the rubbish was actually mine, and then it dawned on me! I had hired a cleaner to clean my house that day, and to get rid of my rubbish she had simply opened the backdoor and thrown it outside! And then scattered it round, so it didn’t look so bad (but was much harder to collect).

I considered hiring her again, specifically to tidy my backyard, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. It seemed too condescending, like rubbing a pet’s nose in the mess they made. I resigned myself to the fact that this isn’t my week for changing the world, but after going back and collecting all of the rubbish, at least my back yard is tidy.