May 18, 2026
JAKARTA – Long before the Jakarta administration’s household waste-sorting policy took effect on May 10, residents of East Cempaka Putih’s “Samtama Village” in Central Jakarta had already been separating household waste for years, significantly reducing the amount sent to landfills.
When The Jakarta Post visited the neighborhood earlier this week, waste-bank boxes filled with sorted plastics and cardboard lined the entrances of narrow alleyways. Amid the lush surroundings, ornamental and medicinal plants decorated the paths, while separate bins for organic waste and dry recyclables stood at various corners.
The name Samtama is short for Sampah Tanggung Jawab Bersama (Waste Management is a Shared Responsibility), according to local community figure Mohamad Yakub, 60, reflecting the neighborhood collective approach to reducing waste generation.
Yakub said the community first introduced a “Green Village” concept in 2007 by planting trees along the alleys before evolving into the Samtama waste-management initiative. In 2019, then governor Anies Baswedan designated 22 neighborhood units across the capital as pioneers of the movement.
“At first, it was difficult to convince residents to sort their waste because not everyone considered it an urgent issue,” Yakub told the Post on Tuesday. “But over time, people were inspired by their neighbors. Now it has become a habit driven by self-awareness, not just obligation.”
Today, 20 waste banks operate across 18 neighborhood units in the East Cempaka Putih subdistrict.
Each household separates waste into four categories: recyclable inorganic waste such as plastics and cardboard for collection at waste banks; organic waste such as food scraps for composting; residual waste including disposable diapers and tissues; and hazardous waste. The latter two categories are collected and managed by the city’s Environment Agency.
Yakub added that recyclable waste collected through the waste banks is sold once a month, with the proceeds used to support neighborhood activities and social assistance programs.
Resident Muhammad Ali, a 59-year-old former Public Facilities Maintenance Agency (PPSU) worker, said the waste-sorting system had not only made the neighborhood cleaner but also strengthened community solidarity, as proceeds from recyclable waste sales were often used to help sick residents or families handling funeral expenses.
“If residents in the Samtama Village have been able to sort waste for years, why can’t others?” he said, stressing the urgency of household waste separation in addressing Jakarta’s growing waste crisis.
Persistent challenges
Through Gubernatorial Instruction (Ingub) No. 5/2026 on waste sorting and source-based waste management, Governor Pramono Anung has ordered residents to separate and manage household waste, including composting organic waste, which accounts for nearly half of Jakarta’s total waste generation.
Recyclable materials, which make up around 40 percent of the city’s waste, must also be separated from residual waste destined for refuse-derived fuel plants and waste-to-energy facilities. Meanwhile, hazardous and toxic waste is to be disposed of at designated collection points.
The policy aims to ease pressure on the overloaded Bantargebang landfill in Bekasi, West Java, which, before the regulation was introduced, had been receiving more than 9,000 tonnes of garbage daily from Jakarta’s 11 million residents.
The administration is targeting a 50 percent reduction in waste sent to Bantargebang by Aug. 1. A report published on April 22 by the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Law’s Emmett Institute identified Bantargebang as the world’s second-largest methane-emitting waste site among 25 major landfills surveyed globally.
Despite the success of the Samtama Village and the new policy aimed at encouraging similar waste-sorting initiatives across the capital, supporting infrastructure and public awareness remain limited.
Governor Pramono’s special staff for public communications, Cyril Raoul “Chico” Hakim, acknowledged the challenges and said the administration would address them gradually.
Meanwhile, Jakarta Environment Agency spokesperson Yogi Ikhwan said the agency was still preparing technical guidelines for implementing the waste-management program.
“To support outreach efforts to all Jakarta residents, we are currently deploying field support staff,” he added.
Despite supporting the initiative, Rujak Center for Urban Studies executive director Elisa Sutanudjaja urged the administration to provide transparent information on how sorted waste is ultimately processed, arguing that residents need proof that separating household waste produces meaningful results.
She noted that waste-sorting initiatives should have been implemented long ago, following the enactment of the 2008 Waste Management Law on waste reduction and handling, “but they have never worked effectively because the incentives and disincentives were unclear.”
Urban planning expert Nirwono Joga said Jakarta’s waste crisis stemmed from decades of poor waste management and over-reliance on landfills.
“If every subdistrict could process its own organic waste [into compost] and manage recyclable waste locally, then only [a small portion of waste] would need to be transported to the Bantargebang landfill,” he said.