More Than Fireworks: Interfaith Group Tackles New Year’s Trash in Yogyakarta

New Year’s Eve. Did you sizzle satay over embers, paint the sky with fireworks, or scribble hopeful resolutions by flickering candlelight?

No judgment here — your revelry is your own.

But swapping a lively New Year’s Eve celebration with confetti litter and fireworks debris isn’t the right way to toast the new year.

Take Yogyakarta, for example. Titik Nol, the beating heart of the city, thrums with excitement. Malioboro, the bustling main street, is packed with people. Even Tugu Yogyakarta, the iconic landmark, is adorned with festive lights.

Having said that, after the New Year’s Eve celebration ends, the city’s grandeur is replaced by a sea of trash, left behind by irresponsible visitors.

The issue of trash left behind after thirty first of december celebrations is a growing problem in Yogyakarta. Every single year, the city is left littered with plastic cups, food wrappers, and other debris. This is a serious issue that has some negative consequences.

Piles of litter at Yogyakarta’s Tugu were left behind by visitors after the New Year’s celebration. Photo by Umar Farooq Zafrullah.

Nix only is this an eyesore for the vibrant city, other than it bleeds into environmental harm.

From polluting waterways and attracting pests to clogging landfills, this festive garbage becomes a burden on the very planet we celebrate. It’s a stark reminder that our temporary revelry shouldn’t come at the cost of a sustainable future.

CTC community capturing moments together in a group photo, courtesy of Ferry Mahulette.

In response to the growing problem of New Year’s Eve trash in Yogyakarta, a community organization called Clean The City (CTC) from Jemaat Ahmadiyah Indonesia (JAI) took action.

They began cleaning up the trash at 1:00 AM on New Year’s Day, starting from Tugu Yogyakarta and working their way down to Titik Nol Kilometer.

Since 2015, the Clean The City (CTC) community has held a simultaneous cleanup of New Year’s Eve trash in dozens of cities across Indonesia.

“As a group that is often seen as different, we decided to be different in a positive way,” said one of the organization’s members, Umar Farooq Zafrullah. “While others are busy partying and littering the streets on New Year’s Eve, we are cleaning it up.”

The Clean The City community does not work alone. It is joined by interfaith organizations such as the Young Interfaith Peacemaker Community (YIPC) and the Jaringan Gusdurian, and it collaborates with stakeholders and local communities, including the Department of Environmental Sanitation and Hygiene (DLHK).

“We wanna start the new year with a clean slate. Cleanliness of the heart, soul, and city,” Umar continued.

Ferry Mahulette, a pastor from the Santri Gusdurian Yogyakarta who participated in the CTC event this year, echoed these sentiments. According to Ferry, the movement is in line with the Gusdurian’s core values.

Countless people claim to love nature, but they still litter, this is a contradiction. If we love nature, we should take care of it.

Nevertheless, Ferry stated that joining this movement wasn’t driven by a myriad of reasons; he simply contemplated how to fill New Year’s Eve with something productive.

“I don’t think about it that much, but it’s the best way to fill New Year’s Eve instead of just getting drunk,” he said.

Ferry is collecting New Year’s Eve celebration trash, a photo sent by Umar Farooq Zafrullah.

Ferry’s resolution to join the CTC community is a simple one, although it is a powerful one. It shows that we could all make a difference in the world, even if we don’t think about it that much.

The CTC community is right to point out that the issue of waste in Yogyakarta is becoming increasingly complex, and New Year’s Eve only adds to the problem.

Yogyakarta is a city that is famous for its beauty and culture, but it is also struggling with a serious waste problem. In recent years, the city has seen a sharp increase in the amount of waste generated, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to manage.

Bringing together the Clean The City community is a testament to the power of individual action in tackling waste problems. With every piece of trash picked up, these volunteers weave a cleaner future for their city, thread by thread.

For those who couldn’t join the cleanup, there’s a simpler mantra: if you couldn’t sweep it up, don’t drop it in the first place [mhg].