Additional Benefits from Waste Savings
This is what makes PAUD Pelita Peduli Anak Bangsa special. Its management is held in collaboration with the Pelita Bangsa Waste Bank of Ballaparang village, Rappocini district.
At 10 a.m., Central Indonesian time, students of the Pelita Peduli Anak Bangsa early childhood education center (PAUD) entered a clean and colorful classroom. But there is something special about this PAUD, related to Makassar city residents and domestic waste.
On Tuesday (21/9/2021) morning, class was held at PAUD Pelita Peduli Anak Bangsa for three hours. Children had lessons about health protocols.
"During the pandemic, we have limited the number of students attending school. So [two groups] take turns, every other day," said Rosmini Buhari, 45, the principal of the PAUD, which is on an alley off of Jl. Pelita Raya in Makassar, South Sulawesi.
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Before the end of class, a group of women, generally parents of students and local residents, come with sacks or large plastic bags filled with waste. In the corner of the school yard, they deposit the garbage.
This is what makes PAUD Pelita Peduli Anak Bangsa special. Its management is held in collaboration with the Pelita Bangsa Waste Bank of Ballaparang village, Rappocini district. The PAUD is also used as the location of the waste bank’s secretariat.
The price of plastic and paper waste is Rp 1,500-Rp 5,000 per kilogram. Iron, aluminum and other metals are more expensive.
The waste brought by the residents includes plastic, iron, aluminum, paper and cardboard, all of which have been sorted. The waste is weighed, then purchased. The price of plastic and paper waste is Rp 1,500-Rp 5,000 per kilogram. Iron, aluminum and other metals are more expensive.
The majority of parents of the PAUD students are customers of the Pelita Bangsa Waste Bank. As customers, they have a savings book that records the date of the waste deposit, the types of waste, their respective weights and the running rupiah balance. Everything is handwritten.
This money is generally used to pay school fees. Like at a bank, school fees and other needs are simply "debited" from the savings balance.
“From my first child until now, with the second, I have paid school fees and bought school items using waste bank savings. Sometimes, I also use it to pay electricity bills,” said Sri Yunita, 29, the parent of a PAUD student.
Another parent who has also been a customer of the waste bank for the last six years, Heryanti, 40, does the same. “The money is to pay the monthly school fees for her child at the PAUD and buy school utensils for the child’s elder sister. If there is more, the money is used to buy rice," she said.
The school fee at PAUD Pelita Peduli Anak Bangsa is Rp 50,000 per month. Inexpensive? This is because part of PAUD\'s operational costs are supported by the waste bank’s profits, which come from the price difference between buying waste from customers and selling it to the central waste bank.
Meanwhile, at Sejahtera Abadi Waste Bank in Mappala village, Rappocini district, customers do not only use waste bank savings to finance their children\'s school needs, but also for other monthly needs, such as paying for electricity bills or social security contributions.
Ramlah, 40, one of the customers of Sejahtera Abadi Waste Bank, for example, sets aside a part of her savings to pay monthly contributions for her participation at the Health Care and Social Security Agency (BPJS). She has participated in two programs at once, health and death insurance.
"Because the money is not too big, customers generally only save it, and every month it is taken to add to the payment of electricity bills or children\'s school needs," said Johannis, 69, a manager at Sejahtera Abadi Waste Bank.
Pelita Bangsa and Sejahtera Abadi are only two of hundreds of waste banks in Makassar city. Currently, waste bank customers in Makassar have reached 24,000 people from over 15 districts, including on outlying islands.
Reducing waste
Until two years ago, the number of waste banks was around 1,000, with more than 57,000 customers. The Covid-19 pandemic and the absence of a definitive mayor at the time caused a lot of waste banks to suspend operations.
In Makassar, the waste bank program started more than 10 years ago. The initial goal was to create a clean environment while reducing waste to be dumped at the final disposal site (TPA). Residents are invited to sort their waste before it is bought by a waste bank unit.
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From the waste bank unit, waste is purchased by the central waste bank, which usually cooperates with the waste processing or recycling industry. Every week, the central waste bank fleets pick up the waste from the waste bank units at the district or subdistrict level.
Lately, the waste bank program is no longer just to create a clean environment. Waste savings are also used as a source of additional income. Customer balances range from hundreds of thousands to millions of rupiah.
Saharuddin Ridwan, the chairman of the Indonesian Waste Bank Association, which also pioneered waste banking in Makassar, said that even though it was not large, waste banking contributed to reducing the waste that went to the TPA.
Some are used to make various items, which are then sold or used by the waste banks themselves as inputs to make goods.
Every month, 700 to 1,000 tons of household waste are deposited into waste banks, so this does not add to the burden of TPA Tamangapa, the only garbage dump site in Makassar. The waste is in the form of plastic, paper, cardboard, iron, aluminum and other materials with value. Some are used to make various items, which are then sold or used by the waste banks themselves as inputs to make goods.
That does not include food leftovers or kitchen waste. With regard to kitchen waste, some of it is used as compost. Other portions are used as food for maggots purchased by bird breeders for feed. The rest of the kitchen waste becomes fertilizer.
According to Saharuddin, the circulation of money in the waste banks is quite large. This year, with a target of Rp 700 million, circulation reached around Rp 3 billion in August.
In order to increase the number of customers, waste bank managers collaborate with BPJS, state-owned pawnshops and other companies. “I once cooperated with Unilever to create a waste program in exchange for soap, shampoo and toiletries articles. Now we have a program with BPJS," said Rosmini, the chair of Pelita Bangsa Waste Bank.
Now, the benefits of the waste banks are increasingly felt, not only by reducing waste, but by also encouraging education and saving for a better future for the environment, such as in PAUD Pelita Peduli Anak Bangsa.
(This article was translated by Hyginus Hardoyo)