Beyond cleanup: A Sunday with Trash Hero Jakarta

JAKARTA – My Sundays usually start slowly, with a rolled yoga mat or feeding stray dogs in the hidden slums of the city. But this one is different.

This Sunday finds me at the Lapangan Banteng park in Central Jakarta, with a glove on my right hand and a bin bag on my left, bending down to pick up a stranger’s candy wrapper or, worse, a cigarette butt.

I’m joining a cleanup with Trash Hero Jakarta, part of a global network that started in Switzerland in 2013 and now operates in 15 countries.

The routine is simple. There are 17 of us this Sunday, walking the perimeter of the field, picking up trash—mostly plastic—and sorting it as we go. There’s an unspoken…