A waste led opportunity

How can a single mother of two, working as an environmental engineer specialising in water supply systems, radically change the way a country thinks about and implements its waste management solutions?

In the case of Yuyun Ismawati, she achieved exactly that and more, she took the lead.

Poor waste management is a critical issue across many developing countries and in Yuyun’s home country, Indonesia, inadequate government-led services collect as little as 30% of the waste produced, mainly servicing communities with higher incomes.

As a Lead Fellow, Yuyun was driven by the belief that her skills and knowledge were not reaching the poor communities with the greatest needs… an unacceptable waste. 

She identified the need to engage local communities in waste management and developed a number of models to build capacity within organisations to respond to the needs of poor communities across Indonesia. In 2000, Yuyun founded her own NGO, Bali Fokus, to help disseminate and replicate community-based models. Continuing to lead by example, she initiated a solid waste management programme, in Gianyar, Bali, training local communities to run their own waste facilities and developed and implemented a ‘decentralised solution initiative’ that trains local women in low-income urban areas in practices such as recycling and composting household waste.

For one woman to make such an impact on a country’s attitude to waste management is quite remarkable but for Yuyun, the true sense of achievement comes from the fact that she has literally changed and fundamentally improved the lives of whole communities. The waste facility in Gianyar now employs 40 local residents and receives carbon credits from the voluntary market to support its sustainability. In addition, income from the sale of recyclable materials and compost benefits local farmers. The ‘decentralised solution initiative’ now involves 500 households and has halved waste in the participating villages. Women have also been able to generate income by selling their compost at local markets. 

Yuyun is just one of a network of 2,500 Lead Fellows dedicated to creating a more sustainable world and for her outstanding achievements has been awarded the prestigious Goldman Prize, which honours grassroots leaders who undertake extraordinary actions to protect the environment.