Jakarta‘s Mussel Waste problem

Inside a small tent facing Jakarta Bay in Cilincing,North Jakarta,Muhammad Fajar Alamsyah sits quietly,extracting mussels from their shells,a dead-end job he has been doing for more than a decade.

In North Jakarta fishing neighborhoods, where fisherfolk can harvest between 1 and 4 tonnes of green mussels every day, people who do not sail like Fajar make their ends meet by shelling mussels, collecting 20 kilograms of edible flesh on a good day.They are typically paid Rp 3,000 (18 US cents) for every kilogram of edible flesh.

Green mussels are mostly sold to nearby markets to supply seafood eateries.

Simultaneously occurring, the inedible parts of the mussel, including the shell that accounts for up to 90 percent of the mollusk’s body, get thrown away.

“We always throw them in the sea as there’s no othre alternative. As the time goes by, the waste has piled up like this,” Fajar told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.