YSEALI Seeds:Ā Bebas Sampah ID
About the Project
Bebas Sampah ID (BSID) is a program with two main activities: platform development and youth empowerment. BSID has a national online-based waste management platform, bebassampah.id, which already has following features: 1) Waste Assets, 2) Illegal Dumping, and 3) Collaborator, all of which are visualized in one single map, 4) Movement, 5) Multimedia Library, and 6) City Waste Management Index.
As a participatory platform, BSID collects its data through crowdsourcing from multi-stakeholders. Besides the platform, BSID also trains a youth volunteer unit called Zero Waste Ranger (ZWR), to be waste activists who possess leadership skills and environmental knowledge beyond the surface.
Why do you care about this specific topic/issue?
Indonesia has dire problems with waste. We are the second biggest marine plastic polluter in the world after China (Jambeck, 2015) and the second biggest food waste producer after
Saudi Arabia (Economic Intelligence Unit, 2017). With the President Regulation No. 97/2017, Indonesia plans to reduce 30% of waste, and handle at least 70% of waste to prevent accumulation in the landfill, all by 2025. Four years into the regulation, the country is still struggling with its implementation:
Per 2020, Indonesia produces 67,8 tons of waste annually (Ministry of Environment and Forestry, 2020)
In 2019, 32% of waste ended up unmanaged in illegal dumping sites (Tempo, 2019).Ā
In 2021, at least three landfills in Indonesia are expected to be overloaded.
We want to mitigate the longing threat and risks of waste, as itās been proven to be fatal (such as in the case of landslide of Leuwigajah landfill that buried two villages) and unsustainable for our ongoing, and future, development.
Why did you decide to start this project?
Even though waste governance already exists, the data initiatives they made to support the implementation often overlap. Five government institutions have their own waste management information system: Ministry of Environment and Forestry, Ministry of Public Works and Housing, Ministry of National Development Planning, Ministry of Home Affairs, and Ministry of Health. However, these platforms lack updated data and systems that monitor the target, and don't cover civil societyās contribution in the waste governance, e.g. awareness rate from educational activities, waste collection rate from cleanup, and reduction and recycling rate from community-based waste collectors. This is where BSID stands as a bridge.
What are your goals for this project?
Our main goal is to to support and accommodate more citizen participation in waste governance, especially young citizens in this digital era. We plan to do this by two actions: 1. Develop Bebassampah.id website as collaborative waste governance platform 2. Train university students to be agent of change in the waste governance
How will YSEALI Seeds help you achieve your goals?
Through YSEALIās support, the network, funding and guidance helps us to optimize bebassampah.id website and scale up our program impact to a larger audience.
What have you accomplished and implemented so far?
We have revamped some features in our website to provide a better experience for users who want to take part in Zero Waste Indonesia including:
Upgrading out Movement Feature, now collaborators can maintain their event easier through participant attendance tracking, automatic certificate generator, event reminders. Participants can find events of their interest by using the filter widget.
Improving our Asset Feature by adding a filter, individuals can now find waste processing facilities near their location and send their recyclables there.
Weāve also recruited our Zero Waste Rangers, a total of 18 youth volunteers who will help spread awareness and spirit to tackle waste management problems in Indonesia. We have equipped our rangers with 5 capacity building sessions so far, and will continue to expand their hard and soft skills. We are also coaching them on partnering and public speaking to prepare them for the Zero Waste Roadshow, an education program to introduce Bebas Sampah ID to university students.
What are the most significant lessons learned youāve experienced so far?
That it takes a village and cross-sectoral knowledge to build a waste management platform and train students to be future trainers. Weāve had to partner with various organizations to scale up our website functionality and promote it to a broader audience, and invite professionals with various backgrounds and areas of expertise to give capacity building to our Zero Waste Rangers.
What are the success stories you can share with others who would like to do the same type of activity and/or project like yours?
Since our program is platform based, we think itās very important to gain exposure and credibility online. So, definitely educate as many people about your digital platform through engaging and informative content in social media. Partnering with organizations that have similar goals also helps us create a greater impact, just like the saying āIf you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.ā Last but not least, ensuring communication within the internal team so that our ideas and voices are heard to create better strategy and decisions for the programās growth.
