Children of the Landfill

Jakarta is home to over 450,000 trash pickers.

Trash pickers, or Pemulung as they’re known in Indonesia, live on and around overflowing landfills and dump sites, scavenging through the masses of unsorted rubbish that flows from the mega-city that is Jakarta.

For the families who live here, it’s hard enough to earn enough money for food, let alone send their children to school.

Lack of education and opportunity means that many of these children become trapped in a generational cycle of poverty and trash picking. Parents often ask their children to help pick trash so they can earn more money, ultimately cementing their children in a future of poverty and trash picking.

Organisations like XSProject, the Kingdom of Bantar Gebang and Yayasan Dinamika Indonesia are working hard to break this generational cycle, and ensure that the children of the landfill are able to dream of a future beyond waste.

Jenna Lindberg reports.