Garbage into Electricity in Sulawesi.

[Vanhelsing]

It's encouraging to see an Indonesian community becoming pro-active in waste management and reaping real rewards for their efforts. The city of Kendari in Sulawesi has shown how a commitment to making a city cleaner can affect people's day to day lives in a positive way as well as protecting the environment.

Just a decade ago, Kendari was among the filthiest cities in Indonesia. Bins overflowed with bags of mouldy rice, rotting food scraps and plastic bottles. Reeking garbage was burned or left uncollected on the streets for weeks, attracting flies and roaches.

But today, the city of half a million people in south-east Sulawesi province has been spectacularly transformed, winning national cleanliness awards for eight straight years.

His biggest success was setting up Kampung Mandiri Energi, or "Independent Energy Village", in Puuwatu district, which produces methane gas from organic waste in the city's biggest landfill.

"Everything is free. I'd never thought rubbish could be so valuable," housewife Kustina Kasim, 31, told The Straits Times.

She and her husband, Anas, a waste worker, used to spend $50 a month on kerosene for cooking. Given that they have two school-going children to support, it was a strain on the family's finances.

By 2025, world cities are expected to generate 2.2 billion tonnes of municipal waste a year, nearly doubling the 2012 figure of 1.3 billion tonnes a year, according to the World Bank.

http://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se...donesian-city-turned-garbage-into-electricity