Perhaps the first picture that comes to mind when thinking about Indonesia is the Bali beaches and rice paddies stretching across the country, but 12 miles from Indonesia's capital of 10 million people, and on Java island, Bantar Jepang, the largest open waste collection. Southeast Asia away from the eyes of tourists.

The largest landfill is home to 3,000 families who were born or lived on this land.

The 11-hectare Bantar Jepang receives 9,000 tonnes of waste a day from those who have chosen to move in and live in it. It has become a source of livelihood for families where it literally lives, with some families supporting themselves by looking for resale.

It is quite normal to find all the family members, old and young, working in the profession of sorting and selling waste, bringing their daily income to 30 thousand rupees, equivalent to two dollars.

In a shocking paradox, the remnants of vegetables and fruits thrown away elsewhere in the country are a source of food for others.

The workers here take time to cope with difficult conditions, and spend the first weeks without eating, because the smell prevents them from doing so, and cause a state of permanent vomiting, until they get used to the smell and adapt to it.

The difficult living conditions in Bantar Jepang are also competing to impose themselves. There are smells and bacteria, families live in shelters without access to health care and drinking water.

Bronchial diseases, intestinal worms and skin infections are the most common problems among Bantar residents.

But tons of trash that wiped out the landmarks could not erase the smile on the faces of Bantar Jibang's children, who are having fun and even playing without shoes, uninterested with sharp objects or broken glass on the floor.

The garbage dump in Bantar Jibang grew up over rice fields in Bekasi province in 1989, and many of those working here used to earn their living from digging the land, or from rice field farmers whose land had been swallowed by the constant tide of rubbish.

Efforts in the community are trying to combat the problem and reduce the amount of garbage being transported from Jakarta daily, but Bantar Jepang will remain the home of the garbage and the largest landfill until a solution is found to the problem of waste disposal in Jakarta.