About 12 miles from Jakarta on the island of Java in Indonesia lies Bantar Gebang – the largest open landfill site in south-east Asia.
And home to around 3,000 families. Some of the children that call this frightful place home were even born there.
Their lives have been documented in a series of shocking images by 36-year-old photographer Alexandre Sattler from Colmar, France. He visited the dump – which receives 9,000 tonnes of rubbish a day – because he was interested in discovering more about Indonesia’s waste problem.
What he found profoundly shocked him.
He discovered that families there use the landfill as a way of making a living, foraging in the grime for items they can re-sell.
Sattler called it ‘a world of filth’.
He told MailOnline Travel: ‘When I arrived in Bantar Gebang I saw many families living there. The most shocking thing is that what some consider a waste, becomes a resource for others. The scale of inequality is striking and shocking. Fruit and vegetables thrown away by some, become a source of food for others.
‘The living conditions are terrible: smells, bacteria, insalubrity… families and their children live there in shelters without access to medical care and drinking water.
‘Children were living in the middle of rubbish, playing in garbage.’
Some, he said, walked around in bare feet. Injuries are not uncommon as the ground is littered with sharp objects.
‘Parents showed me their son’s open foot wound – I felt helpless,’ he said.
Amazingly, he said, some of the children seemed happy and carefree – but he suspects only because they have no points of reference for how their lives could be better.
He said: ‘The children have taught me that even in the worst situations, joy exists. I saw children playing, cheerful and happy to share time with me, to show me their shelter, toys and introduce me to their parents.
‘Not being able to compare themselves with children living beyond those mountains of waste, they seem fine.’
Source: Images reveal life inside an Indonesian rubbish dump | Daily Mail Online
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