Instead of Throwing, It’s Better to Save Trash

Sriningsih (45), a customer of Jalak Green Collection (JGC) Waste Bank arrives at the community hall of RW 05 located in Cipingan Besar Selatan, East Jakarta. This is the place where Sriningsih and other customers do the weekly meeting and give the trash they collected to be saved as money. On that day, in the middle of April 2021, Sriningsih and others would get the money as a result of their saving for a year. 

Sriningsih spends her daily life as a fruit seller in Ciplak Market near her home. The trash she has by selling the fruits is saved in a waste bank twice a week. She knew the waste bank activity by the information of Mrs. Laksmi, head of JGC Waste Bank. 

“Instead of collecting the trash and put them in the store, I prefer to be a member of JGC waste bank. The member can get the reward if we are saving routinely,” Sriningsih said. 

She admitted that is easy to save the trash in the waste bank. She only needs to sort out the trash, clean them and an officer will collect the trash. 

“If we give more trash, it can gain more money,” she told excitedly. 

After a year of saving money in a waste bank, Sriningsih now gets the result of IDR 3 million.  

“I will give the money to my staff who always sort out the trash at the store. I also will use it for my children, to buy their new clothes and stationaries,” she continued. 

She hopes that the JGC Waste Bank can give more impact on others. 

“I wish the bank would be successful in the future and the people can realize how useful the program is. Instead of throwing them, they should save them in the waste bank,” Sriningsih hoped. 

JGC Waste Bank is one of the banks assisted by the Phinla project. Phinla project is a global waste management program implemented in 3 countries (Philippines, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka) supported by the government of Germany (BMZ) through Wahana Visi Indonesia (WVI) and Divers Clean Action from 2020 to 2022. 

Not only assisted, but the Phinla project also collaborates with the local government in giving waste management curriculum and sounding behavioral change campaign and awareness-raising. Phinla project also has created a waste management mobile application (Android-based), namely Binbank, that available in 4 languages (Bahasa Indonesia, English, Tagalog, and Visayans). 

Written by: Pedaman Halawa, and FX Hanung, Staff of Phinla Project Wahana Visi Indonesia