Kompass, Jakarta’s daily, Indonesia’s largest, featured this infographic on the cover of its May 19, 2022 edition. The goal: to alert people to food waste, at a time when the world is preparing for shortages due to the war in Ukraine and droughts affecting many countries.
This graphic representation makes it possible to compare the quantity of food thrown at the height of the main monuments of the country. This quantity of waste is related to a “basic unit” which corresponds to cardboard meal boxes distributed during family, village, work reunions, cultural or political events.
In total, the food wasted each year in Indonesia is equivalent to 21 billion euros, according to the article accompanying the infographic, or nearly 77 euros for each of the 273 million inhabitants of the country. According to data from the Ministry of the Environment reported by the daily, in 2020, food waste from 199 cities or districts accounted for 40% of all household waste they generated that year.
Some of this waste would be collected and eaten by the populations working and living on the landfills, as evidenced by the journalists who met two 40-year-old garbage collectors, Sarmi and Adim, consuming pastries found in a plastic bag among the mountain of trash.