Indonesia’s pandemic-fuelled problem: Mounds of medical waste
Al Jazeera
From masks and gloves to IVs and COVID tests, reporter Adi Renaldi visits the landfills and dumpsites that are now home to toxic medical waste.
The overpowering stench is the first thing that I notice, filling my nose and making my eyes water. Then I see the mountains of rotting waste. This is Burangkeng, one of Indonesia’s largest landfills, in the city of Bekasi some 30km from the capital, Jakarta.
On the surface it looks like any other large dumpsite, but among the regular rubbish lies a growing amount of toxic medical waste. From blood-filled drip lines to masks, medical gloves and COVID-19 tests. All hidden in plain sight.
As a journalist investigating the impact of the pandemic on Indonesia’s waste system, I have spent a great deal of time reporting from morgues, cemeteries and hospitals, watching how the virus takes tens of thousands of lives and renders others hopeless and isolated.
