Not Our Trash

Since March 2019, imported waste from developed countries sent to Indonesia has become a major source of environmental pollution. Most of the waste is plastic, including household products, personal care items, and food packaging. Stacks of plastic waste can be found in villages near a paper factory. Several villages in East Java Province have served as dumping and sorting sites for imported plastic waste for many years. The villagers used to be farmers who worked on the rice fields. But now, the fields have become a dumping ground for plastic waste. Many of the products are recognizable as having been sold in the European Union, Australia, the United Kingdom, and Japan.

Plastic has become a form of currency. Tofu and lime factories, desperate for cheap fuel, have found it in the endless piles of discarded foreign plastic. Thick black smoke, laden with dioxins and other toxins, billow from makeshift kilns, staining the sky and the lungs of the villagers. The once-fertile soil intended for rice paddies has turned brittle and barren, infused with microplastics.

Garry Lotulung

Garry Lotulung is a freelance photojournalist and documentary photographer based in Jakarta, Indonesia. Lotulung has specialized in stories about the human condition, social change, and environmental crises.