How One Neighborhood Unit Rewired Its Relationship With Rubbish
In the densely packed alleys of Sukawarna Village, Bandung, a small team pushes a cart loaded with paint buckets through the lanes three mornings a week. Their route covers 120 households and roughly 3,000 residents. By the time they finish, the buckets hold the sorted remnants of daily life: organic scraps destined for maggot feed, and plastic destined for something more surprising.
The group is Masagi Tjibogo, a 45-member community founded in 2019 by Dian Nurdyana, a government contract worker who monitors the Cipamokolan River for the Citarum River Basin Office. According to Kompas, which first reported this story, the community now collects around 2.4 tonnes of organic waste and 600 kilograms of economically valuable plastic every month.
From Waste Bank to Woven Goods
Masagi Tjibogo did not arrive at its current model immediately. An early waste-bank program collapsed within a year when resident participation proved too thin. Dian then redesigned the approach around household sorting, with collection runs on Mondays, Thursdays, and Saturdays between 08:00 and 10:00 local time.
To build compliance, he introduced an unconventional incentive as neighborhood head: residents who needed population documents processed were required to sort their waste at home first. The policy drew complaints initially, but sorting has since become routine.
Organic material goes to the Bening Saguling Foundation in West Bandung, where it is used as feed in maggot farming to reduce poultry costs. Inorganic plastic waste takes a different path. Members of the community's Sakoling Mekar program, launched in May 2024, weave plastic bag waste into bags, wallets, laptop bags, and coasters. The Bandung Institute of Technology has provided support to the initiative.
The results have crossed borders. In August 2024, a buyer in Germany purchased 300 sheets of woven plastic measuring 40 cm by 40 cm, a transaction worth more than Rp 50 million. Community member Yoyo Arnawiah noted that products have also reached Singapore and Japan.
Education as the Long Game
Dian's approach treats behavioral change as the real product. In January 2023, the community launched Sakoling, an informal environmental school that now draws around 50 children from kindergarten through middle school. Sessions run every two weeks on Sunday mornings, mixing drawing, quizzes, and a litter-collection exercise called the Waste Collection Movement. Volunteers, NGO workers, and university students assist.
The program for adults runs in parallel. Ten women in Sakoling Mekar develop craft skills and generate income from recycled plastic, with products marketed through the community's social media accounts.
Dian's own path into environmental work began in 2013, when he returned to the Cikapundung River near Tamansari where he grew up and found it choked with rubbish. Years of unpaid river-cleaning work preceded the founding of Masagi Tjibogo, giving the community a foundation in direct environmental experience rather than top-down instruction.
Why It Matters for Hosts
Independent guesthouses and homestays in Bandung face the same waste-sorting gap that Masagi Tjibogo was built to close. The community's model offers a practical template: partner with an existing neighborhood waste-collection scheme rather than managing disposal alone. Directing organic kitchen waste to an established collector like Bening Saguling Foundation, and separating plastic for community recycling programs, reduces landfill contributions and gives guests a concrete story about responsible travel. Operators who can point guests toward Sakoling sessions or Masagi Tjibogo's market products also create a local connection that distinguishes a stay from a generic booking.
Details in this post were first reported by Fabio Maria Lopes Costa for Kompas.
First reported by kompas.id.