388 Solid Waste: Turning a Health Risk Into a Resource
How Eseng gained better health and respect
Every day, Eseng went around the city of Bandung, Indonesia, to collect trash.
Because his house was far from the neighborhoods with the best trash, he spent
almost all his time walking back and forth carrying heavy bags.
Each night, Eseng sorted the trash to sell to dealers the next morning.
Some dealers bought glass, others bought scrap metal, and others bought
paper. But the things no dealer would buy piled up around Eseng’s house.
His yard became a messy, dangerous garbage dump, but there was nowhere
for Eseng to get rid of the trash. Sometimes he got infections that lasted for
months and made it difficult to work. Now and again he got a bad fever and
chills from malaria because mosquitoes bred in the tires in his yard. And, despite
his hard work, the police often bothered him when they found him sorting
through trash in front of shops or in the street.
Eseng and some other waste collectors decided to
organize a center to help them sell what they collected,
and to provide other benefits by sharing
knowledge, tools, and information. They
visited a local organization that worked
for the environment and workers’ rights,
and together they came up with the idea
to develop a more complete resource
recovery program.
People from the environmental
organization asked the city government
to support the resource recovery program,
and to make the police and shop owners treat
the waste collectors better. The city government agreed, and a center was set
up where Eseng and the others could sort the waste they collected. Each of the
waste collectors was given a cart with wheels, making it easier to collect waste
and bring it to the center for sorting or take it directly to junk dealers.
The resource recovery center provided gloves and boots to protect the
workers from sharp objects and contaminated trash. When the people from the
environmental organization learned that Eseng had malaria, they helped him
get care and medicine at a health clinic.
Eseng still works hard collecting waste, but his health has improved and his
house no longer looks like a garbage dump. The police and shop owners give
him and the other waste collectors the respect they deserve for helping to keep
the community clean. And the city is proud of the resource recovery center and
their cleaner city.
A Community Guide to Environmental Health 2012