Isabel Esterman, Jakarta – When old mattresses and broken chairs are dumped by the roadside in his neighborhood, Erwinsyah faces a choice: leave them there and risk accidents, or set them on fire.
The head of a neighborhood unit, or RT, in the city of Bogor, south of Jakarta, Erwinsyah says residents often discard bulky waste such as used spring beds and furniture along the street. Left unattended, they become an eyesore – and a hazard.
"The mattresses are already dirty, smelly, full of rat droppings. So they just get placed by the roadside. But that's an area where people pass by, children go to school," Erwinsyah told Mongabay. "If a child walks past and it falls on them, then I'm the one who'll get blamed as the head of the neighborhood unit."
To prevent that from happening, he sometimes burns the items in an empty field away from houses, staying to monitor the flames.
What Erwinsyah describes isn't unusual. Across Indonesia, open waste burning remains widespread despite being prohibited under the country's 2008 Waste Management Law.
A 2023 national survey by the Ministry of Health found that 57% of Indonesian households still burn their waste, making it the most common method of waste handling. By comparison, 27.6% hand waste over to collectors or informal waste pickers, 8.7% dump it directly at disposal sites, and just 0.1% reported recycling.
Health impacts
Open waste burning releases a mix of pollutants, including fine particulate matter and sooty smoke known as black carbon.
These tiny particles are a major component of urban smog and can penetrate deep into the lungs, contributing to cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, said Budi Haryanto, a professor of environmental health at the University of Indonesia.
The health risks go beyond short-term symptoms such as coughing, colds or acute respiratory infections, he said.
"Chemical components such as black carbon and carbon monoxide penetrate deeper into the body and deposit in vital organs: heart, nervous system, lungs, digestive tract, skin, blood and bones," Budi said. "This also helps explain why many Indonesian women experience anemia. Heavy metals can inhibit red blood cell production in bone marrow."
If left unaddressed, air pollution becomes "a silent killer," he warned.
"Air pollution from waste burning is very serious and has been affecting public health for a long time. If not addressed seriously, we will continue to suffer."
Climate impacts
Beyond public health, open waste burning also contributes to climate change.
Black carbon – produced through incomplete combustion of materials such as plastic, rubber and organic waste – remains in the atmosphere for only days to weeks, far shorter than carbon dioxide, which can linger for centuries. But while it's airborne, it absorbs solar radiation and heats up the surrounding air directly. Per unit of mass, its warming effect is far stronger than that of CO2.
Because the atmospheric pollution it causes is short-lived, cutting off sources of black carbon emissions can bring relatively quick climate and air-quality benefits, said Didin Agustian Permadi, an environmental engineering lecturer at the National Institute of Technology (ITENAS) who studies air pollution and climate interactions.
"If we reduce super pollutants at the source – one of which is household waste burning – through proper interventions and measurements, we can lower emissions by 2030 and achieve healthier air quality," he said.
Root causes
Despite the legal ban, open burning persists for practical reasons as much as cultural ones.
Law enforcement alone is unlikely to solve the problem, said Tiza Mafira, executive director of Dietplastik Indonesia, a group that campaigns against plastic waste. Unlike large forest fires, small neighborhood fires can't be easily detected by satellite. And there are many of them. Last year, the Ministry of Environment identified at least 100 burning points across Jakarta alone.
"So do we want to install CCTV on every street corner?" Tiza said.
Authorities and civil society groups should instead try to understand why residents continue to burn waste in their own yards, she said: "What's going on in people's minds?"
In some communities, burning waste was historically associated with keeping the environment tidy, said Sofyan Ansory, an anthropologist involved in a new pilot project addressing the issue. During a time when household waste consisted mostly of leaves and twigs, burning was seen as a sign of diligence.
"For some people, it is considered their contribution to the community," Sofyan said.
But the composition of the waste has changed. Plastics, foams and synthetic materials now dominate household trash, producing more toxic smoke when burned.
Infrastructure gaps also play a role.
In Erwinsyah's neighborhood, the local environmental agency doesn't collect certain types of bulky or inorganic waste. Items such as old spring beds are left behind, he said.
"How can people not burn waste if the environmental agency only collects certain waste?" he said. "[If] burning is not allowed, where should it go?"
For Erwinsyah, burning is a last resort.
"If we burn it, at least it's gone," he said. "Yes, it smells. But I'm forced to do it. There's no other way."
Financial constraints add another layer. In his RT of about 90 households, residents pay 15,000 rupiah (less than $1) per month for waste collection; but only around 60-70% contribute, he said. At times, Erwinsyah has to use neighborhood funds or his own money to pay the waste collectors.
For low-income communities, concerns about air pollution or climate change may not be the most immediate priority, Sofyan said.
"So even if the president and [environment] minister declare a waste emergency repeatedly, it will not automatically change behavior without addressing structural barriers," he said.
Physical access is another obstacle. In dense settlements with narrow alleys, waste carts often can't reach individual homes, said Zakiyus Shadicky, senior research lead at Dietplastik Indonesia.
Interventions
In response, Dietplastik Indonesia, with support from energy transition campaign group ViriyaENB, has launched a pilot project called FIREFLIES in three neighborhoods in Jakarta and its satellite cities of Bogor and Depok.
The initiative combines sociocultural research, community education and improvements to local waste infrastructure. Researchers from the University of Indonesia are studying how residents understand and manage waste, with the aim of designing interventions that fit local conditions.
The project also plans to install low-cost air-quality sensors to measure pollution levels in real time. Monitoring is expected to begin this month and last through the end of the year, generating minute-by-minute data that communities can access. The idea is that visible spikes in pollution during burning events may prompt discussion – and potentially peer pressure – among residents.
At present, Zakiyus said, waste burning is often tolerated, with neighbors reluctant to confront one another.
"We want residents to report to each other. Without social norms against burning, even the best app is useless," he said.
Interventions, such as community education, which will be decided based on the neighbourhood studies, are expected to be rolled out in April and May this year.
Nurmayanti, a senior environmental impact controller at the Ministry of Environment, welcomed the initiative, saying that waste reduction at source and changes in community attitudes are crucial to national waste management and emissions-reduction efforts.
Waste is Indonesia's third-largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, after land use (primarily the forestry sector) and energy, according to government data.
And yet, few people connect waste and climate change, Zakiyus said.
"Waste is often overlooked compared to forestry and energy [in terms of climate change]," he said. "If this intervention works, we get co-benefits: solving waste and climate together."