Research & Insights

Where your waste actually goes?

Have you ever wondered where does your waste goes? After you put it in the waste bin, one thing you know that it’ll be gone when the garbage collector came. What happens to your waste after that? There is actually an elaborate process behind the waste collection.

Waste are managed so it can be treated properly by people in charge of it. It is important that we know that our waste can be harmful to the environment but can also be valuable too if it is managed properly. Every waste goes through a journey where it flows to different processes for a better use in the end.

Trash Travel

Segregation at source

The journey always starts from our daily activities. It can be from our home, work or even recreations that is usually called waste source. All our activities generate waste that will be thrown out to the waste bin. When we can segregate the waste at source, actually, it can became something more valuable than mixed waste.

Collection Transport

Waste4Change’s operators posing in front of our garbage truck.
Operator beserta truk pengangkut sampah Waste4Change

Here comes the garbage truck. The garbage truck collects all the waste from your local area. It is being transported to another place that will be initial process of the waste management. Waste collection usually happens every day up to once a week. Modern garbage truck has different compartment for different category of waste. That’s why it is important to sort out our waste from the start.

Transfer Station

The transfer station, or in Bahasa Indonesia called as TPS, is where all the garbage truck from the local area take the waste to be dumped. The transfer station will be the main place where the waste is sorted to different to be treated accordingly. Inorganic waste is going to be recycled, organic waste will be composted and remaining residuals are going to be dumped into the landfill or processed into something valuable for energy.

Recycling Center

The Inorganic waste is now sorted out from the other wastes and it will be separated once again for each categories of material. Papers, metals and plastics are usually the main categories of sorting for recycling. The recycled waste will become the exact raw material of the product itself. These materials can be sold to manufacturers to remake their respective products out of the recycled materials. In Indonesia, there are many informal sector relies on this recycling business chain.

Composting facility

Organic waste can be composted to become fertilizer. Good organic fertilizer is produced from organic waste that is sorted and treated properly. It is easy to compost organic wastes to be fertilizer, this practice has been done for centuries but it needs specific sorting of the waste itself from the first place. For the process, there are many different type of it: from open windrow using the work of aerobic bacteria up to using organism such as earthworm or black soldier fly.

Landfills

Some of the waste which can’t be recycled or composted can be brought to the landfill for long term storage. Landfill is the final resting place of garbage. We don’t want our waste to be in the environment like the ocean or the nature. That is why the landfill is built, the landfills prevent unwanted pollution.

Ilustrasi TPA – Sumber: vchal/Gettyimages

Even though the landfill isn’t a sustainable solution for waste. It is the best we can get for now. Reducing our waste that goes to the landfill will be the perfect effort to reduce environmental impact of waste. If you want to know about how to keep away from landfill and implement Zero Waste to Landfill, contact us.

Manufacturing Recycled Materials

All those materials that was reproduces from the recycling center is now distributed to the manufacturers. Manufacturers can be using these recycled materials to make their products again. Things like plastic utensils, paper bags and newspaper usually use recycled material.

Kunjungan ke pabrik dau rulang dapat menjadi pembelajaran yang efektif mengenai daur ulang. Sumber foto: http://ealingnewsextra.co.uk/features/no-need-to-waste-food-waste/
Kunjungan ke pabrik dau rulang dapat menjadi pembelajaran yang efektif mengenai daur ulang. Sumber foto: http://ealingnewsextra.co.uk/features/no-need-to-waste-food-waste/

These materials also ran on complicated process to become good quality products to be used. These products will be eventually in the customers’ hands once again to go under the cycle journey of waste.

Now we know the journey of our wastes. If we can manage responsible, our house’s waste and go into the right treatment to eventually get back in to your hand. Being responsible to the garbage we thrown out is crucial to this process.

We can learn so much more about waste management from Waste4Change, where all waste can be responsibly managed for a good use. If we know how to manage our waste responsibly it will give the best outcome for the environment and the society.

Read the article in the Indonesian version here.

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