IT is 9am but 12-year-old Imran Muslin is not in school. 

He is at work, separating plastic, paper and metal at the Kayu Madang landfill, a 30-minute drive from Sabah’s capital, Kota Kinabalu.

With other boys his age, he stands atop a mound of rubbish, picking out recyclables and throwing them into separate sacks for each item.

The boys’ parents are working nearby and will come over to help once the sacks are full, arranging them in groups according to the material.

“It will be a good day,” Imran said. “With this much rubbish, our family can get around RM50 by the end of today,” he told The Malaysian Insight.

Imran along with dozens of other children and their families have worked at the landfill for the past two years. Some have even built makeshift houses.

The 145ha Kayu Madang landfill is the sole such facility on Sabah’s west coast and receives up to 800 tonnes of rubbish per day from Papar, Tuaran, Kota Belud, Kota Kinabalu and Putatan. 

“For 1kg of metal, the scrap-metal dealer will pay us around 40 sen. A pile of plastic bottles will be around RM5 and the cardboard around RM2. 

“The more we collect and separate, the more we get paid. This is why my whole family are involved,” said Imran’s father, Muslin Ghafar.  

The plastics, cardboard and paper are sold to nearby recycling centres, while metal is sent to a dealer based at the landfill.

Smelly but safe

Muslin, 50, is an illegal immigrant from Tawi-Tawi, one of many islands in a string of others that lie between the restive southern Philippines and Sabah’s eastern coast.

He came to Sabah with his family in the 1990s, escaping violence in his homeland, and now tries to make a living to feed his children. 

Sending his children to school is costly and bureaucratic, so Muslin would rather have Imran and his siblings working with him at the landfill.

They have grown used to the smell and don’t mind the unhygienic conditions. As Emma Matsaid, another rubbish-sorter said: “You will get used to it once you have stayed here more than two years.” 

Emma and her husband, Kimsui Kasmil, 62, have been living in Sabah since the 1970s and call the landfill home, including for their six children.

Kimsui arrived in Sabah in 1972 and worked on the construction of Yayasan Sabah. 

Just a teenager then, he was not strong enough to lug sand and concrete, so he was assigned another job.

“The wheelbarrow I pushed to carry sand and concrete constantly keeled over as it was too heavy, so the Chinese towkay gave me a hammer and my job was to pull crooked nails from wood.”

In 2000, and with a wife, Kimsui started living at the Kayu Madang landfill. He and Emma have raised all their children here.

“Today, I’m a grandfather and my eldest grandchild will be completing secondary school soon,” he said.

Most of the workers at the landfill are Bajau Ubian, he said, and most came to Sabah illegally.

Some held the IMM13 card for refugees while the rest did not have any form of identification.

The landfill not only means home to them but is safety, as those without documentation risk running into the authorities and getting arrested if they venture out or live elsewhere.

Several scavengers who have worked at the landfill were once caught and deported to the Philippines but returned a few months later and resumed work at the landfill, Kimsui said.

“They cannot find a job back home. There’s always armed conflict in the southern Philippines. This is why it is better and much safer to work here in Sabah.”

Modest dreams

The scavengers’ dreams are modest, like Habiba Mansur, 45, who worked for years at the landfill until she saved enough money to open a small canteen.

“Previously, the only way for workers to get food was to buy and bring food on their way to work here,” she said.

There is no other life around the landfill as it is secluded and few vehicles come to the area.

Before Habiba opened her canteen, many scavengers would walk all the way to Telipok, the nearest town.

Habiba’s four teenage children also work separating recyclables at the landfill.

She is proud of what she has achieved with her savings and her canteen as she is able to feed those working here, she said.

“They can now could buy food when they are getting paid. Even if they don’t get their pay, I tell to take the food and pay later.

“They have always paid. They are honest people.” – January 9, 2019.