An anthropology of waste

ABSTRACT

This article discusses plastic and other solid household waste in both rural and urban Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta (Special Region of Yogyakarta) and integrates several practical and theoretical perspectives in its analysis. An exploration of the everyday littering practices of the Javanese people is combined with analysis of their particular ways of relating to the environment. This study reveals that an abstract notion of nature is not seen as crucial by most actors. Rather, what counts for individuals is their immediate social environment. Government officials are increasing efforts to raise awareness of the issues at hand, and to encourage citizens to sort household waste and to recycle. However, bottom-up initiatives such as community-based ‘waste banks’, communal clean-ups and ‘recycle fashion’ street carnivals that address various social, economic, and emotional aspects of waste have proven much more efficient. Thus, a tentative path to transform the waste problem that, in the authors’ perspective, challenges the notions of growth, modernisation, and human-nonhuman relations is seen in Java in the mobilisation of the local, social and moral world. However, it is not certain that this will generate a less consumptive lifestyle leading to the much needed reduction of waste.

KEYWORDS:

• Bank Sampah
• environmentalism
• Java
• plastic
• social practice
• waste

Acknowledgements

Our research was supported by the Center for Southeast Asian Social Studies (PSSAT) at Gadjah Mada University through the World Class Professor Program (No. 168.A10/D2/KP/2017) of the Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education (KEMENRISTEKDIKTI) of the Republic of Indonesia. The German Senior Expert Service (SES) assisted with workshops at PSSAT which provided valuable opportunities to discuss the findings with colleagues and practitioners. We are also grateful for the valuable suggestions of the two anonymous reviewers.

Notes on contibutors

Judith Schlehe is Professor of Socio-Cultural Anthropology at the University of Freiburg, Germany. She has conducted extensive fieldwork in Indonesia over the last three decades. She has also published widely on religious dynamics, cultural politics, globalisation and transcultural issues, gender, the anthropology of disaster, popular forms of representing cultures, and new approaches to transnational and multi-disciplinary academic collaboration. Her current research projects are on Indonesian alumni from the Middle East and on waste issues in Indonesia. Email: [email protected]

Vissia Ita Yulianto, PhD, is a socio-cultural anthropologist. She is the author of Reframing modernities in contemporary Indonesia: ethnographic study of ideas on center and periphery in Sulawesi and Java (Regiospectra, 2015). She works at the Center for Southeast Asian Social Studies and teaches at the Graduate Programme of Performance and Visual Arts Studies, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Email: [email protected]

Notes

1 See Schlehe and Yulianto (2018) with a focus on religion.

2 This does not imply that Indonesians in general do the highest harm to the environment. On the contrary, the ‘ecological footprint’ of Indonesia is considerably smaller than, for instance, that of Germany (Global Footprint Network 2018).

3 The media most often focuses on the economic effects waste has on tourism, especially in Bali, where in 2017 a ‘garbage emergency’ had to be declared due to the amount of plastic and other waste on the beaches.

4 See, for example, the ‘Indonesian Waste Platform’ on Facebook.

5 Nilan (2017) even speaks of an ‘ecological habitus’ of Indonesian student environmentalism.

6 Enviro-cultural criticism includes radical environmentalism, eco-justice approaches, human ecology, eco-feminism, as well as anti-essentialist feminist eco-criticism (Ali 2014; Williams et al. 2012).

7 Until the recent ban on plastic waste imports, more than half of the world’s plastic waste was transported to China. Electronic waste often goes to Africa. However, plastic waste imports to Southeast Asia was expanding by 2003. One effect of China’s ban was that Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines had a noticeably high plastic import increase in 2018 (Sembiring 2019).

8 There are interesting recent studies on how environmental challenges are framed in particular countries and regional contexts (Hirsch 2017).

9 Environmental problems in the West have been accredited to the Judaeo-Christian cosmology of man’s mastery of nature and the Cartesian worldview, both of which have separated culture from nature and created dichotomies (Bruun and Kalland 1995). In eco-feminist approaches, focus is given especially to patriarchal structures that rely on binary opposition, such as that between male/female, human/animal, spirit/matter, heaven/earth, mind/body, culture/nature, and white/non-white (Hobgood-Oster 2006).

10 The traditional Western dichotomy between nature and culture can be seen as an ‘ontology of detachment’. However, recent approaches emphasise the intertwinement of human and nature by conceptualising humans as an integral and interrelated part of nature.

11 The term Anthropocene usually refers to the current geological epoch, in which humanity has become a potent factor within the geologic time scale. However, the Anthropocene may also be understood ‘as a symbol, as a call-to-action, as an intellectual and cultural turn’ (Hird 2017: 242).

12 Not surprisingly, there are similar objections to this concept, stressing that capitalism is also not singular in its ethics or unitary in its social organisation (Hefner 2017).

13 The ubiquity of plastic in our surroundings and our food chain leads to the amalgamation of the human body with inorganic components.

14 New materiality and actor-network theory (Ingold 2012; Latour 2005) makes us ask not only what humans do to objects by producing waste, but also what waste does to the environment and to humans.

15 All quotations were translated by the authors. The interviews were conducted in confidence.

16 Pemulung, waste workers in the informal sector, sell items of economic value, especially plastic and metal, to pengepul (waste entrepreneurs), who take them to recycling factories.

17 Sometimes this attitude is explained by a ‘downstream effect’ i.e. what is no longer visible when floated out of sight does not bother people.

18 For a critical perspective on the government’s role in constructing and instrumentalising gotong royong as part of its social engineering measures, see Bowen (1986).

19 It has to be conceded that, at least among high school students in Yogyakarta who participate in environmental education programmes, environmental awareness is not the main issue. According to a survey by Parker et al. (2018), students identify waste as the main local problem, but they are vague about practical solutions to ameliorate waste problems. Another study by Tanu and Parker (2018) in Surabaya found that students join environmentalist activities for the fun of socialising and doing things together. This corresponds with our impressions of many participants at this clean-up event.

20 Another option is to donate the money they would otherwise be paid for the waste (sedekah sampah), which can then be used for social and humanitarian activities.

21 The government of Indonesia has been promoting the 3-R principle since 2007.

22 These Bank Sampah also receive financial support from the government and from major enterprises.

23 At times, central government measures are not followed up. For instance, in 2017, a rule was introduced that plastic carrier bags should be sold for Rp200 (US1.5 cents) by modern retailers. After only two months, these bags were again being given away for free.

24 <http://www.indonesianwaste.org/en/home/>

25 This basically resonates with the recommendations of the International Solid Waste Association (ISWA 2017).

26 Sapto Pesona is a motto that is supposed to represent the basic values for the development of Indonesian tourism: keamanan, ketertiban, kebersihan, kesejukan, keindahan, keramahan, kenangan (security, order, cleanliness, freshness, beauty, friendliness, memory).

27 Pokdarwis is an acronym for Kelompok Sadar Wisata (Tourism Awareness Group). These groups promote tourist attractions.

28 In Bantul, 600 tonnes of waste are produced each day. Half of this waste goes to the final dumpsite in Piyungan; the other 300 tonnes are burnt, buried, or thrown into rivers.

29 Arisan is an informal savings, credit, and lottery scheme in Indonesian communities.

30 Pemberdayaan Kesejahteraan Keluarga (Family Welfare Empowerment Movement) is semi-governmental and focuses on rural areas.

31 One civil servant, however, openly complained that his own son would still buy instant noodles (supermie) at school and discard the plastic containers without consideration. He remarked sadly that the influence of his peers is obviously greater than his father’s.

32 The main sponsors were Jejaring Pengelola Sampah Mandiri (JPSM; Independent Trash Management Network), AMOR (Anggayuh Mulyaning Wargo; Expecting Community Prosperity) of Bantul Regency, Dinas Lingkungan Hidup, Dinas Pariwisata, Dinas Diajeng of Bantul Regency, and the PLN Peduli CSR Programme.

33 This holds true for ordinary people and activists. Crosby (2013) and Nilan (2017) observed a new tendency among Indonesian environmental activists, namely the local rooting of their campaigns, taking a deliberate distance from transnational movements.

34 At the core of kejawen lies the correspondence between the microcosm and macrocosm, and the bond between the outer, phenomenal world (alam lahir) and the inner aspects of life and self (alam batin) (Endraswara 2011).