Indonesia has recently controlled the import of foreign garbage, which has upset many villagers in Bangong village who make a living from it. Some villagers say they earn more from recycling than they do from growing rice.

In July 2017, China adjusted 24 types of solid "foreign garbage" in four categories, including waste plastics and paper, into the "List of Prohibited Imports of solid waste", and officially implemented the ban on "foreign garbage" from January 2018. Affected by this, Indonesia's waste imports have surged. Faced with the situation, a number of Southeast Asian countries, including Indonesia, have followed China's lead by tightening import regulations and customs checks to ship hundreds of tons of foreign waste back to their countries of origin.

In June, Indonesia's environment and forestry ministry returned five containers of trash to the United States, declaring that Indonesia "will not become another world trash can."

Green groups applauded the move, but residents of Bangong say refusing to accept garbage from the United States, Canada and Australia would deprive them of an important source of income.

"If they are going to ban us from doing this, there has to be a solution. But the government is not giving us jobs, "said Hori Masood.

Masood is one of Bangong's 3,600 villagers, whose front and back yards, once used to grow rice, are now filled with garbage they scavenge for plastic and aluminum to sell to recycling companies, and which some tofu makers buy to burn as fuel.

Tall exhaust towers spew smoke into the air near four paper mills in Bangong village. In Indonesia, many of these factories are major importers of paper products worldwide, making industrial packaging, particleboard and corrugated board.

Salam, 54, says the income from recycling pays for his children's schooling and he has used the money to buy a house and livestock. "I have nine goats now," says Salam, who now works as a broker between villagers and a nearby paper mill. "It's easier than farming." "He said.

Despite the benefits, environmentalists argue that the piles of garbage pose a threat to the villagers' health.

A study by the green group ECOTON found that microplastics had contaminated groundwater in Bangong village and the nearby Blantas River, a source of drinking water for five million people in the area.

Indonesia imported 283,000 tonnes of plastic waste in 2018, a 141% increase over the same period in 2017. According to a 2015 study, the country is the second largest contributor of plastic pollution to the world's oceans.

The Indonesian government has fallen far behind on plans to build waste-to-energy plants, and plans to tax plastic bags face stiff opposition from the plastics industry.

China's waste is also a problem. A World Bank report in June said India's Nisi urban area generates 105,000 tons of solid municipal waste every day, of which only 15 percent is recycled. Landfills in many cities are close to capacity, while beaches around the archipelago are often littered with waste.

In 2017, Indonesia launched a program pledging $1 billion to reduce Marine plastic waste by 70 percent by 2025, according to the Jakarta Globe. But it's unclear how much progress has been made. (Reporter Nam Bo-il)

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