On the afternoon of March 19th, kids and teenagers paraded ogoh-ogoh around the neighbourhood, carrying their creative mythical figures and yelling their anthems, while dressed in their special shirts. My friend, Dwi Harkita had a chance to capture the nice pictures during this parade. The ogoh-ogoh is a huge papier-mache demon with intricately shaped and tied bamboo framework before many layers of artwork. This parade is unique because all of the ogoh-ogoh were made by garbage, especially the non-biodegradable one. We can call them as garbage demons. The parade was hold to celebrated Nyepi Day (Balinese Lunar New Year) coming on March 21, 2015 as well as raise the garbage issue in Indonesia.  Besides, they impressed people that garbage can turn into artwork, increasing the act of recycle and upcycle.

Properly speaking, this parade reflect the reality that people are now surrounded by garbage, such as plastics, metal , styrofom, and many more. They act like demon, threatening us causing illness and disaster. According to pollution index in www.numbeo.com, garbage disposal satisfaction index in Indonesia, especially Bali is considerably low. For your information, waste management poses a great challenge in Indonesia. Growing household consumption and business activity give rise to high volumes of organic food waste, plastic packaging and industrial byproducts. According to UNCRD, the municipal solid waste has grown from 0.8 kg to 2.1 kg per capita over a decade. To address this issue, the Indonesian government has imposed stricter waste management and recycling regulations increased infrastructure and facilities in waste management. Even foreign investors are presented with new opportunities in Indonesia to enter the waste management and recycling to fulfill the demand for comprehensive waste disposal services.