Agents of Change: Rafa Jafar / Founder, EwasteRJ

Rafa (19) is the founder of EwasteRJ, a nonprofit community organization tackling the e-waste problem in Indonesia. At 12, he became the youngest published Indonesian author with his book "E-WASTE."

Rafa promoting EwasteRJ in the community
Public using E-waste drop box
Rafa checking E-waste drop box
Rafa discussing with a study group at a university

Transcript

00:03

Direct Talk

00:08

Rafa Jafar is the founder of EwasteRJ,

00:11

a nonprofit community-based organization

00:13

tackling the e-waste
recycling problem in Indonesia.

00:17

Since forming,

00:18

EwasteRJ has successfully collected
more than 7 ton of electronic waste

00:22

by installing drop boxes that allow the community
to access recycling facilities,

00:27

educating youth,

00:29

and collaborating with local governments
to scale up their activities.

00:33

At the age of eleven,
Rafa published his first e-waste book,

00:37

making him the youngest
Indonesian non-fiction author.

00:41

If you can do so much more then why not.

00:43

If you can write a book
out of your research paper. Why not?

00:47

And then when the book started
the same mindset comes again,

00:50

if you can do so much more,

00:51

if you can create a community,
you can create movement out of that book. Why not?

00:56

E-waste describes discarded electrical devices

00:59

and, in 2019,

01:00

the world generated
more than 50 million ton of e-waste and

01:04

continues to grow rapidly.

01:06

Based on the Global E-waste Monitor,

01:08

Indonesia is the 7th largest producer of e-waste,

01:11

creating more than 1.6 million tons in 2020.

01:16

Rafa is one of Indonesia's
youngest proponents for positive action,

01:20

and along with EwasteRJ, is contributing to
changing the culture of e-waste and sustainability.

01:26

For Rafa and his team,

01:28

creating lasting change is
their generation's responsibility,

01:32

and starts with educating the nation's youth.

01:35

Agents of Change

01:36

Seeing how public react to E-Waste,

01:39

I can say 90% of them is
still not aware of what E-Waste is.

01:44

Where does it come from?

01:45

And how can we differentiate
that from original waste?

01:49

Technology is rising.

01:50

People are enjoying new products.

01:52

But then this E-Waste, they're not recycled properly.

01:56

When it's recycled informally,

01:59

the way these informal sectors just do;

02:01

environmental contamination,

02:03

the toxins inside E-Waste,

02:05

mercury, lead,
it will contaminate the environment.

02:08

And it will lead to diseases in humans.

02:12

But the goal is not to recycle
as much E-Waste as possible.

02:16

The goal is to reduce
the amount of E-Waste that is produced.

02:19

And so it's never just about
how we can recycle as much as possible.

02:23

It's how we can change the whole system

02:26

and we can have the stakeholders
to do their own role

02:30

and collaborate with each other.

02:32

Rafa's experience and knowledge
of e-waste defies his young age,

02:36

with his efforts being recently rewarded

02:38

with an appearance on the latest Forbes Indonesia

02:40

30 under 30 list of influential persons.

02:43

Yet before he founded and launched
Indonesia's leading non-profit organisation

02:47

in electronic waste at the age of 12,

02:50

he described himself as a young boy fueled by
curiosity and fascinated with technology.

02:56

Everything started when I was in 5th grade.

02:58

My other occupation as a learner is a gamer.

03:03

I play a lot of games.

03:05

And I keep on buying new devices.

03:08

And then they started to break.

03:09

Then I buy new ones again.
Then they break.

03:12

And then there is still one full drawer
full of electronic waste.

03:16

At elementary school,
Rafa undertook an issue-based research project.

03:21

With a keen interest in e-waste,

03:23

Rafa spent almost 4 months
developing and creating his report

03:26

that he presented at his school's exhibition.

03:29

My grandfather came to that exhibition.

03:31

And then he told me that
it can be elevated into a book.

03:34

And so, you know as a 10 year old,

03:37

the imagination of having a book
with my name on it was,

03:42

that really sparked my excitement.

03:44

Oh yeah. I want to write a book.

03:45

And so yeah I wrote the book from it.

03:48

If you can write a book
out of your research paper. Why not?

03:52

And when the book started,
the same mindset comes again

03:54

if you can do so much more,

03:56

if you can create a community if you can
create movement out of that book. Why not?

04:00

At the age of 11, Rafa published his first book -

04:03

"E-Waste."

04:05

The book sought to
make e-waste management easy to understand

04:08

whilst encouraging children and their families

04:10

to be more mindful of
how e-waste impacts the environment.

04:14

From that book, we have a lot of sections on

04:16

what you're supposed to do
with the issue of e-waste

04:19

and what movements can you do.

04:21

I was thinking like,
"Why don't we just do this by our own."

04:24

"Why can't we just help people
to do these kinds of movements?"

04:26

That's how it really sparked
the movement EwasteRJ and becomes a community.

04:31

While still a teenager,

04:32

Rafa created and installed 5 drop boxes
in his school and local community,

04:37

to enable e-waste to be easily disposed of.

04:40

Following his initiative's positive response,

04:43

Rafa was motivated to launch EwasteRJ

04:46

with the help of his friends
and high school alumni,

04:49

aiming to ignite an e-waste recycling movement.

04:52

Launching a non-profit organization
is no easy feat

04:56

and for teenage Rafa,

04:57

this challenge only increased by his decision

04:59

to pursue a law degree at
Yogyakarta's University of Gadjah Mada.

05:04

It's always a challenge to juggle between doing
my work in EwasteRJ and school at the same time.

05:10

And right now I'm in my first year of college.

05:13

So it's still a bit of a challenge
when I'm still adjusting to the new environment

05:17

of being a college student in a University.

05:21

In EwasteRJ we have a lot of people
that's already in environmental engineering.

05:26

We have them study that.

05:28

And I wanted to come on a
different approach on how we see this issue.

05:33

The plan is taking the Major of environmental law.

05:36

So we want to make the team
as diverse as possible.

05:39

We don't want just everyone to have
the education of an environmental engineer.

05:43

But also from different perspectives
and points of view.

05:46

Through the journey itself, through the process

05:48

I found a lot of new things
that I'm capable of basically. Because

05:52

those new things that I found out was the,

05:54

you know some of the little sparks
that made me ok we can still go.

05:59

We can still develop,

06:00

we can still evolve as a community,

06:02

as an organisation.

06:04

That's really the key on how I kept on going.

06:06

Through promotional campaigns,

06:08

EwasteRJ encourages the public
to place their e-waste in their drop boxes

06:12

which are then collected by
members of the EwasteRJ team

06:16

and handed over to
management firms for processing.

06:19

Drop boxes provide Rafa and his team
a focus point to raise awareness about,

06:24

and facilitate e-waste collection
at the community level.

06:27

Our tagline is campaign, collect, and circulate.

06:29

I like to say that we're the bridge
to connect the stakeholders.

06:33

Because when we look at
the cycle of electronic devices.

06:37

We start from the producers.

06:39

And then through the sellers,
and then someone consumes it.

06:42

To the consumers.

06:43

And then from there,

06:45

properly it has to go to the recycling centre.

06:48

And from the recycling centre
you can go back to the producers

06:51

to create more and new devices.

06:53

People imagine it as very like complicated move.

06:56

I planned it and everything.

06:58

But actually it's very organic.

06:59

And the transition was, the idea was,

07:04

ok, we wanna make a movement.

07:07

We wanna provide our own dropbox.

07:10

And from that,

07:12

how can we make a team to educate more people.

07:16

And so when I was in middle school

07:18

I used my middle school's alumni list.

07:22

I found out like who knows more
about E-Waste than we do.

07:26

And it was the alumni there
who were already in college,

07:30

who was already
studying environmental engineering, so

07:32

we ask them to, do you want to make a team?

07:36

Do you want to start this small community?

07:38

And they said yes.

07:39

And it started from there.

07:40

Surprisingly there's a lot of people
who want to contribute with our movement.

07:44

People do want to tackle this issue.

07:47

And those things cumulatively spark me.

07:52

Ok, we need to make this official.

07:55

A key component of EwasteRJ's campaigning
takes place in schools.

07:59

Not only does it allow Rafa
to affect change at the grassroots level,

08:02

it has also proved a valuable resource
in adding team members to their growing community.

08:08

We talk to the students there,
we talk about E-Waste.

08:11

We tell them how dangerous it is.

08:12

We ask them,
how are you using your electronic devices?

08:16

How are you managing your E-Waste
that you have in your house.

08:19

And if you do, you throw them to
or dispose them into EwasteRJ.

08:23

Why we also target school

08:26

is that we also want to expand our team.

08:32

We also wanna have a team with Gen Z,

08:35

with curious and energetic people.
Where we want to collaborate together.

08:40

That's why I love it when we go to schools,
when we go to universities. Because

08:45

there would be new people
who are excited to join our team.

08:47

By continuing to develop
their concept and expand their team,

08:51

EwasteRJ has collected
more than 7 ton of e-waste,

08:55

and grown its passionate team
to more than 20 e-waste-collecting agents

08:59

helping service 20 drop box points
in 12 cities across Indonesia.

09:04

Of course it's important for young people to do
and start to contribute on world emerging issues.

09:11

However, I do think that it's not a must.

09:15

It's not really an obligation
for young people to do such thing.

09:19

I really do think that my generation, Gen Z,

09:24

the power that we have is energy and curiosity.

09:29

We have that two very important value,

09:33

that maybe, baby boomers or millennials
perhaps don't have what we have.

09:38

That energy and curiosity.

09:41

And you pair them with the older that
do have more experience, generations

09:46

that have more knowledge.

09:47

You can create something out of that.

09:49

You can create big ideas.

09:51

You can create big projects.

09:52

And I think the urge of collaborating

09:55

intra-generational collaborations is what we need.

10:00

Because, change can come from anywhere.

10:03

And you don't have to follow
the same sector that everyone is doing.

10:07

You don't have to be a change maker
in the field of environment.

10:10

You don't really have to do that.

10:11

You do what you like.

10:13

And the contribution of young people
will always be huge,

10:17

and will always be the key element of
creating real change.

10:21

But then again, as a teenager

10:24

I tend to lose focus.

10:26

And I tend to get bored really fast.

10:30

But what really motivates me to keep on going

10:32

is of course first my amazing team
that supports me,

10:35

supports each other to keep on going.

10:37

A team is very important

10:38

because you can never create a change alone.

10:42

Realizing what you're not good at

10:46

is also as important as
realizing what you're good at.

10:49

Because when you do realize
what you're not good at,

10:51

you know that people need to
fill in that spot that you don't have.

10:55

And you need to embrace what that you don't have.

10:57

That's where your team comes in.

10:58

And that's where
exponential growth starts to create.

11:02

As EwasteRJ gathers national attention,

11:05

local governments seek collaborations.

11:08

Following the success of their pilot program,
in Tangerang, an emerging city of West Java,

11:13

the government has ramped up
EwasteRJ activities to all 29 districts.

11:18

Rafa plans to promote this
as a prototype for implementation

11:22

by all Indonesian provincial governments.

11:24

These government sectors do already
have a division where they focus

11:29

on the field of hazardous waste

11:32

which includes electronic waste.

11:35

But a lot of them don't know
where to start or what are we supposed to do.

11:40

So we give them
some sort of roadmap on where to start.

11:44

How to start.

11:45

What we're gonna do.

11:46

And what are the programs.

11:48

And what are the things
that we have to analyze first to see,

11:52

what's the type of the people
that's living in that area.

11:56

How will they react
when there's a program like this.

12:00

And what's the perfect type of campaign

12:03

that can make them to want to
contribute to the programs that we have.

12:08

We collaborate with the
sub-national government of Tangerang.

12:13

And there, we first, provide the dropboxes
for people to throw their electronic waste.

12:19

Then to reach the rural areas,

12:23

we provide a car that

12:24

goes around to the more rural areas

12:27

to pick up the E-Waste
that people are asking for to be picked-up.

12:32

Rafa sees his collaborations with the government

12:34

as a two-way learning opportunity.

12:37

Being a smaller, independent organisation

12:39

allows EwasteRJ to revise their strategy

12:41

according to the needs of each province
and newly acquired knowledge.

12:45

We do realize that this issue of electronic waste
is more in the urban area.

12:50

Where people buy more electronic devices.
Where people use technology more.

12:56

However in rural areas

12:59

it's also a big issue.

13:01

That is why we started to

13:03

collaborate with these environmental sectors,
sub-national governments.

13:07

And how from that,
we can reach out to these rural areas.

13:11

Because in the urban areas we can,

13:13

ok, put a dropbox in the mall,
put a dropbox in the public space,

13:17

and expect people to go there.
And then throw all their electronic waste.

13:21

But in the rural areas we can't really do that.

13:23

We have to be the ones
who pick up the E-Waste from the location.

13:28

Not only has EwasteRJ
managed successful collaborations

13:31

with governments
and built relationships in schools,

13:34

they also launched National E-Waste Day in 2021,

13:38

collecting 2.4 ton of e-waste in only 6 months.

13:42

Yet, his ambitions
for the future continue to grow.

13:45

EwasteRJ is still in beginning of our journey.

13:48

There's so much more big things that we can do.

13:51

There's so much more things
that we can do to scale up our movement.

13:55

To scale up our programs.

13:57

The question is
can we become a recycling company?

14:00

Can that come true?

14:02

That's still a very long way.

14:04

But we're on the verge of figuring out
if we can become that or not.

14:08

Rafa knows his dreams are ambitious

14:11

but remains confident that
young people can make a difference

14:14

and their actions can grow into bigger movements.

14:17

My message to other young people is that
I do believe everyone can become a change maker.

14:21

And change starts from yourself.

14:23

What's your passion? What do you love to do?

14:25

Take your time.

14:27

You wanna do it now. You do it now.

14:29

You wanna do it tomorrow. You do it tomorrow.

14:31

Adjust with your own time zone

14:33

And do not compare yourself with others.

14:35

Because everyone has a different pace.

14:37

Everyone has a different background.

14:39

So be the change you wish to see in the world.

14:44

Be the change you wish to see in the world.

14:48

Every one is the change maker

14:49

and change starts from you.