Pak Warjito is a trader, nicknamed « the Chief of Ragpickers ». He once pulled a cart but is now running a team of 20 people collecting waste from shopping malls, hospitals and zoos, and getting paid for it. Pak receives 40% of the income while his teams get the remaining 60% as well as the waste materials. His team processes 150 cubic meters of waste per day thanks to their five vans and four pick-up vans. Every day, they haul 4 to 7 tons of residual waste to the landfill site. The remaining materials, mostly glass bottles and paper-plastic, are sold for the equivalent of 800,000 Indonesian rupees per day (under 50 euros) to factories around the city. Since his beginnings, Pak Warjito has earned a considerable wealth: he built himself a beautiful house and has been on pilgrimage to Mecca five times. As for his workers, they are still living in houses on stilts, above mountains of garbage bags swarming with huge rats…
