We have known Pak Pande's social enterprise Parahyangan Green Recycle (PGR) since 2019, when we were brought together through the founder of the PKP Community Centre and had already cooperated with Pak Pande in 2019 on the topic of waste separation education in Selasih village.

Due to the pandemic, he had to pause his actual business. Instead, he turned his private house into a garbage separation plant and gave unemployed people in the pandemic a job.

After a visit on a Sunday in March, we realise how sobering the issue of waste still is in Bali. There are too many systems and ways for each individual to dispose of their rubbish: be it in the jungle, in the river, unsorted in a landfill or even simply burned. There are also too many individual actions with waste separation service costs, which is too expensive for the ordinary person in Bali. Moreover, money has long been made with rubbish - which exacerbates the problem: people work against each other instead of with each other.

It is unbelievable to see how often a plastic bottle has to be picked up before it can be recycled. We can't and don't want to get too deep into this issue because it makes you despair and we don't know if we can really have a sustainable impact on the waste problem here. Moreover, there is still too little commitment from the people, the government and ultimately all the companies that are responsible for this madness.

Instead, we will do something in a small way and hope to set an example, give opportunities and thus support a company that has the will to fight more or less successfully against this rubbish struggle.

Thanks to your support, we are now able to pay the salary of 4 employees of the private waste separation plant Parahyangan Green Recycle. On average 80,000 Rp. (5 €/day). So that PGR is relieved and so that the job remains attractive enough that the good guys want to continue working there to support themselves and their family.

With this job we are making a small contribution to the sustainable development goal of no poverty through jobs that are important for the future.

Ni Wayan Lasti.
Ibu Lasti's parents had no money for her schooling, so Ibu Lasti could only attend school up to grade 4 and has had to work hard ever since. She worked as a domestic helper in Denpasar before the pandemic. The pandemic forced her to take the job at PGR and she likes that the working relationship there is very familiar. Ibu Lasti is one of the hardest workers and never hesitates to take on tasks in sometimes very difficult and unhygienic conditions.

I Wayan Mariawan
Bapak Mariawan is also older, but still very agile and hardworking and tireless. He has the highest local Indonesian school leaving certificate (high school) and his greatest experience has been as a driver in Yogyakarta (Jawa). Therefore, he often takes over the rubbish collection trips at PGR's clients. He is one of the most reliable employees and PGR appreciates his thoughtfulness in all his tasks.

Wayan Putra
Also Balinese, lives in Ubud, used to work in tourism as a housekeeper and lost his job through Covid. With Rp 100,000 (= 6.2 euros) per day, he earns the most at PGR. He is unmarried and lives with his parents and his school-age brother in a 3-room flat. His father can no longer work because his left arm has become immobile due to an accident at work. His mother works in the fields from time to time.

When asked, he says that he does not really like the work, but it is important for him that his parents, his brother and he always have something to eat, and at the moment he depends on this work.