Chapter III.
Women and Their Role in Waste Bank: Exegesis of the Changes
a. Synopsis
Mayasari was a 41-year-old housewife. She has a small family consisting of her husband and daughter. Mayasari was a reliable person and learns new things quickly. She was trusted by Bu Siti to be the representative to learn about the waste bank and its activities in it.
March 2022, the pandemic conditions have returned to normal, and activities have also slowly started to run again (this waste bank will have activities as a group). The struggle of Mayasari to educate residents to separate waste.
Through the waste bank, residents were invited to sort waste from their homes. The waste could be reprocessed as one of the activities in the waste bank. However, everything did not go as smoothly as Mayasari imagined. There were still many residents who were reluctant to join at the beginning and underestimate household waste. Even so, Mayasari remained firm in educating women about waste management.
Bu Titik is one of the residents who strongly oppose joining the waste bank. She thinks that sorting waste only adds work to her who has taken care of her children and the household chores all day. But one day, Bu Titik visited Mayasari's house and she was surprised that Mayasari’s house was clean, not as she had imagined. Slowly she began to separate plastic waste and wet waste and became interested in joining the waste bank. It takes time to change human behavior, but they slowly realize that we must work together to reduce plastic waste in the environment.
b. Personal Motive
Making a new world, characters, conflicts, and narrative in fiction is a dream.
Yet it is not as simple as the short pieces I wrote in high school. Everything is supported by facts. How can I compose a story even though I have never participated in a waste bank-related group activity? Simply assisted my mother when she requires assistance with crafts or brooches made from used goods or liquid fertilizers. Based on this activity,
I began to write down everything I knew and how I feel. I did not write about m y experience, but rather from other sources such as research and interviews with persons involved in waste banks. But there are some things I can't write or picture without experiencing firsthand, and those things are emotions. Multiple weeks in a row, I received remarks on how the story is bland and without feeling. Let's say Mayasari and Bu Titik's argument isn't powerful enough, otherwise, there should be an explosion of rage in this story. I couldn't comprehend that situation, yet it took me back to a p eriod when people blamed me for something I have never done. I might use the feelings to write about Mayasari's disappointment when things did not go as planned.
In the plenary meeting of the 35th ASEAN Summit in Bangkok, Thailand last year, President Jokowi emphasized that Indonesia refuses to become a dumping ground for waste originating from abroad (Jokowi: Indonesia Tolak Limbah Sampah dari Luar Negeri). He raised this problem after knowing that there were hundreds of containers containing garbage and hazardous waste that entered Indonesia. Not only that, in commemoration of Earth Day last year, President Joko Widodo expected that Indonesia could be free from waste by 2025 (Bahraini). With all this warning and hope, reducing the use of plastic and plastic waste programs helped to write this fictional story.
Various ways have been done, one of which is the existence of a waste bank program in Indonesia. A waste bank is a program that helps to overcome the waste problem in Indonesia (Bahraini). This research is based on interest because there are many waste banks located in Kelurahan, the subdivision of the subdistrict, Mangunsari.
A large number of waste banks raises curiosity about all the activities in the waste bank and how it works in this waste bank. Based on the results of an interview at one of the waste banks in Mangunsari, the Kusadari unit waste bank has a banking system using plastic waste that has been pre-selected from home (Kaya). The results of these savings can be cashed out as was done at the waste bank unit “Kusadari”. Savings from waste can also be exchanged for necessities, as happened in the Barokah Cooperative or Koperasi Barokah (Sutina).
In the story, Mayasari's character does not yet have an idea of whether the waste bank she formed will provide necessities to residents who save the waste or give money to them. This story provides an early picture of how something happened or was formed.
The waste bank was not only formed by chance, however, but this waste bank is also a government program that invites people to start caring about the environment and start sorting household waste from their homes (Kaya).
The long-term plan which has a target of 2025 is not possible if it goes only in one direction, or only from the government, but the Indonesian people must step in to work together to reduce the use of plastic. Not only the action reducing the use of plastic materials, but we are also expected to start being orderly and change our littering behavior.
"Ealah, I forgot that the garbage must be separated," Mayasari said to herself.
Even though she is a fast learner, adapting did take time.
In that part, not only the community, but Mayasari is also still adapting to all changes. Even at the beginning of the story she still forgets to sort out the garbage. This is why it takes time for all of us to get used to the change.
From the meeting and interview with Bu Mendy from the unit of the waste bank (Kaya), she told me about the beginning when she set up a waste bank. She was interested in the program about waste because she has concerns about her environment.
Bu Mendy also shared that she was taught the craft of trash made from plastic bottle caps which she could turn into a brooch in the shape of a hat wrapped with used cloth and beaded decorations by her friend from the other waste bank. Not only that, she received various materials regarding waste sorting, to composting. Last June, she received training on waste weighing and the data she collected must be uploaded to the form provided by the government every month. This data is collected so that we know exactly how much waste we produce each month.
When Mayasari attended a meeting with the Service Officer of the Environment, it was described that she had received new materials. This happened when Bu Mendy first attended a meeting regarding waste banks in 2020. At that time, she was starting to form the waste bank but was hindered by a pandemic that required all activities to stop.
Bu Mendy just started a waste bank activity again in mid-2021 by making brooches.
Then in 2022, she began to invite residents around her house to start the first meeting of the waste bank when the pandemic had begun to slow down (Kaya). However, the story uses 2022 as the time setting and uses Bu Mendy's experience when she first established
a waste bank in Mangunsari.
The main character, Mayasari, was inspired by Bu Mendy who was interviewed last May. In the story, Mayasari is described as a housewife who participates in social activities in her home environment. This supports my research that women have other roles besides being mothers or taking care of the housework. Women have other important roles in society, especially in Waste Banks. Why are only women featured in my story? I found in my research that the waste bank started from PKK RW. In the place of my research, in Mangunsari RW 16, the association that often runs is PKK RW, and meetings of men, bapak-bapak, are rarely held (Kaya). Even in July this year they have only been active again. Mayasari chose to be a representative and a leader in a waste bank because she was interested in what she didn't know about waste and also remembers that housewives produce a lot of waste at home. The characters of Elina and Galih, Mayasari's husband, illustrate that Mayasari still has a role at home as a wife and a mother.
Other characters in this story are also obtained during the research time. Ibu Siti's character supports and joins the waste bank because not everyone rejects the existence of a waste bank. The unit waste bank ‘Kusadari’ has a motto of turning waste into money, just like the concept of banking. Not only the unit waste bank ‘Kusadari’, but the Koperasi Barokah also uses the same concept as depositing garbage. The community has savings that can be disbursed at any time or can take necessities or groceries from the cooperative (Sutina). The character of Bu Siti, who already understands the concept of buying and selling, already understands the concepts in the waste bank. Based on the data I got, I can conclude when someone has a business, they understand profit and loss. She is not completely at a loss, because there is a lot of waste in her food stall. She is no longer to be confused about throwing out eggshells or dozens of oil bottles, Bu Siti can deposit the trash in the waste bank and become one of her savings. So, Bu Siti's character was formed from the data and Ibu Siti's character is inspired by a member of a garbage bank who owns a shop.
The character Bu Titik is a character who rejects the existence of a waste bank. I read the news about the rejection of the waste bank in 2018 (ARY), and they have several reasons why they reject the construction of the waste bank. The reason used by residents in Manggis alley, RT 5/2, and Air Putih sub-district in Bengkulu, to refuse is that they are
worried about the impact of the waste bank on their environment. The stench, flies, to the disease they worry about. This is what use to be the main conflict in my story. From some of the reasons given by the residents in Manggis alley, I also added that Ibu Titik refused because she was already taking care of household chores and her children. It reminded us that women have a role in the home. Bu Titik throws garbage into the ravine because if she throws trash every week to the garbage collector from a temporary landfill, she needs to spend a decent amount of money.
There are still many things that need to be considered, Mayasari needs to find where the garbage that is collected will be deposited, and where to sell the handicraft. Also, waste sorting requires the cooperation of all parties. The community must work together to keep the environment clean from waste. That's why Indonesia is not an individualist country, people here need each other but things don't always go the way we want. It takes time to change human behavior, they are slowly socializing and we must work together to reduce plastic waste in the environment.
c. The Application of Theory
According to Gaard and Gruen on Environmental Philosophy (Gaard and Gruen, Ecofeminism: toward global justice and planetary health), ecofeminism is a thought that aims to analyze and practice the connections between women and nature. This can be seen from my research which shows that the women's movement and nature have a connection that is not based on a socio-economic and conceptual domination structure. Women who have a role as educators can educate the public about the unfinished waste problem in Indonesia. This role supports that there is a connection between women and nature.
Mayasari's character is starting to care about the surrounding environment based on the ecofeminism theory put forward by Greta Gaard. Ecofeminists have recognized connections and relations between women's oppression and nature's oppression that are important to understand why it is that the environment is a feminist issue (Gaard, Ecofeminism: Women, Animals, Nature). Therefore, Mayasari is made based on the theory of ecofeminism and data from the field when Bu Mendy was interviewed about her experience so far.
d. Message, Market, and Achievement
The message I convey in this story is that we must work hand in hand to deal with the waste problem in Indonesia. We do not fully hand over the government to take care of this problem, as waste producers also take part in reducing waste. Although the Waste Bank is not a quick way to solve the waste problem, the Waste Bank can teach us to sort waste and process it.
The target audience is everyone, especially women. Also, for anyone who has an interest in ecofeminism, and who would like to see another example of the role of women in society.
During the research, I achieved an overview of women’s role in the waste bank and their contribution to reducing the waste problems in their environment. Also, their role of caring about the environment can help to make other people aware that the waste problem in Indonesia is still not finished. This has been proven in my research about women’s role in the waste banks that it is possible for women in the waste bank to have a role as educators and teach the community regarding waste in their environment.
