Ideal Bite

Turns out, we at Ideal Bite aren't the only ones who celebrate Earth Day every day  – the six extraordinary winners of this year's Goldman Environmental Prize do the same, and their every day actions have added up to enormous social and environmental change in Africa, Indonesia, Russia, South America, India, and our own Appalachian backyard. How? They’ll tell you – every day this week, look here for a different interview, eco-confessions and all.

First up: Yuyun Ismawati, Islands, Indonesia

So on Friday I met up with Goldman Prize winner Yuyun Ismawati, founder of Bali Fokus, an org that teaches people in poor Indonesian communities how to reduce their waste with simple methods, like making recycled crafts that they can sell for profit. These areas have almost no municipal waste management programs (who knew landfills could actually be a good thing?), so many people burn their trash, releasing toxic chems into the air and polluting it. Being a crafter myself, I was particularly interested in hearing what Yuyun had to say…hope you will too.

-Senior Editor Theresa, off to make a small change…

What was your first step in educating poor communities about waste management?
YI: We started with a community meeting because we knew solid waste and wastewater had become an issue in the slums. We looked to see if people in the community really wanted to make a change and improve their neighborhoods – we selected people in part on their willingness to contribute, willingness to participate, and willingness to be a promoter for others. Each group has different skills and interests – working on various crafts like recycling paper crafts or these wallets (see photo).

Why did you decide to partner primarily with housewives?
YI: We didn’t intend to target housewives directly, but they were very enthusiastic with this program. These activities provide an additional income for the women. For example, the oldest son of one woman [in the program] will have to go to school next August. She thought she might not be able to afford to send [him], but after this program, she said, “Now I can have a chance to see my children go to elementary school next term.”

What kind of results have you seen from this initiative?
YI: We originally targeted 300 communities and now we’re in 1,000. The visual impact isn’t significant but the awareness and the consciousness of the community to solve their own problems by themselves has become significant. Because once they feel confident to do it, they start to work on other issues – asking us for more support. We’re improving the people’s capacity to solve their own problems.

How can other countries learn from this effort?
YI: In terms of solid waste and wastewater, most local governments or governments are interested only in big projects. But big projects involve big investment and longer [timelines]. But this approach – not top-down but bottom-up – is smaller in scale and solves problems closer to the source. Community-based solutions need less capital investment and [have fewer] complications – small is beautiful in some ways because you can immediately enjoy the impact of your approach.

What is your eco-confession?
YI: When I buy personal or household products, I still cannot avoid buying this kind of packaging [points to wallet]. As much as possible I purchase refills, but those kinds of products are very limited. Most producers sell them in small packages and wrapped individually. It should be the government who regulates the production of household products. So these things I can’t avoid, although I’d like to.