top of page
Writer's pictureSarah Wibisono

What Does Being on Top of The Waste Mountain Feel Like?

Updated: Jan 2, 2022

Hi! It’s Sarah, from the business team. Last week was my very first experience working offline with the other members of the business team, Maya and Okta. It was a pleasure to finally meet them in person again after our ‘meet-cute’ at the previous beach clean up :-D We were going to visit some sites to scan objects into 3D assets for Augmented Reality. It was a long day, we spent almost half a day but it was worth my while. We were exploring around Pererenan and Tabanan by motorbike, It was like we were joining battlefield motorbike ride tours because we traveled through narrow gaps in between rice fields, and fortunately, the weather on that day was supporting us, it was a beautiful cloudy day.


We successfully visited all of the sites on our list, everything was going well until it turned out to be harder than we had expected when it came to scanning some objects that were not reachable. The two objects that required more effort from us are Sungai Watch’s trash barrier and waste mountain in Tabanan. The Sungai Watch’s trash barrier is in the middle of a muddy river. Maya was sliding down into the river, Okta was on the other side and I was on the top of the trash barrier so we could scan the trash barrier entirely.

Shout out to the wood stick that supported Maya to stand in the muck and mire!


The other challenging object is the waste mountain in Tabanan, the gigantic flow of trash during a pandemic has brought a skyscraper of waste to Tabanan landfill. We need to scan the waste mountain from the top to down but it was very difficult because there is no room for us to go around the waste mountain. Luckily, the ex-leader of the TPA (waste management & landfill at Tabanan) allowed us to hitch-hiked into the bucket of the excavator. Being in the bucket of an excavator will pump your adrenaline as well as riding a roller coaster. What an experience!

By hitch-hiking an excavator, we made it to the top of the waste mountain, the feeling of being on the top of the ‘waste mountain’ is kinda similar to the feeling of accomplishment to climb the ‘mountain’; breezes blow through your hair, the sun shines right in your eyes, a flock of birds flying free, and surrounded by an eye-pleasing view haha, but the important thing is we could scan the waste mountain easily.


Side story, I never expected to be in the bucket of an excavator or even being on the top of a waste mountain. Actually, I was a person who sometimes had a fear of germs and contamination, that’s why I never thought that I would be on the top of a waste mountain. In the first place, I was not sure to get into the excavator and climb up the waste mountain, there was an internal battle in me between curious to ride an excavator and fear of the unknown of being up there, but if I’m not trying I will never get the 3D assets of the waste mountain properly and also I might not have a chance to see the view of being on the top. So, it’s worth a try!

As Alan Watts says, “By replacing fear of the unknown with curiosity we open ourselves up to an infinite stream of possibility, pushing our boundaries, leaping out of our comfort zones, and accepting what life puts before us.” Turn your fear into curiosity. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

It was an exciting and unforgettable experience. By experiencing this, now I know how important waste management is. I will never experience such things if I’m not joining su-re.co and overcome fear with curiosity ;-)


Thank you for reading and being curious, see you!

114 views1 comment

Recent Posts

See All

1 Comment


Didn't expect an Alan Watts quote at the end. What a fun read with a beautiful end!

Like
bottom of page