The US keeps sending millions of pounds of plastic to Indonesia, even after the country banned plastic waste imports. Villagers burn it to cook tofu, contaminating a beloved staple with deadly toxins.
00:01Tofu has been a staple food in Indonesia for hundreds of years.
00:06But in the country's second-largest city, it has become toxic.
00:12Trash shipped in from the U.S., Europe, and Australia fuels the furnaces that cook the dish.
00:21Under a microscope, the microplastics are visible on all the surfaces the tofu touches.
00:29Indonesia has banned plastic imports.
00:32But the U.S. still illegally ships about 5 million pounds of plastic here in a single month.
00:49So why is Indonesia at the heart of the world's trash trade?
00:53And how is it poisoning the local food chain?
00:59There are about 60 factories churning out tofu here in Troporo Village.
01:05Takim has worked at many of them since he was 16.
01:10He lives at the factory, like many workers here, because he came from a village almost 200 miles away just for this work.
01:19They start by washing soybeans, the base of tofu.
01:24Many factories get them straight from Argentina or the U.S. for about 27 cents a pound.
01:30The imported variety is actually cheaper.
01:31The beans are also bigger and richer in protein.
01:33Workers soak them overnight to soften them up.
01:37And then grind them into a paste.
01:38These men get paid just over $2 a day.
01:40That was Takim's only job for two whole years.
01:44Becoming one of the cooks is a rite of passage.
01:45They get paid over $12 a day.
01:46They get paid just over $12 a day.
01:47They get paid just over $12 a day.
01:48They get paid just over $12 a day.
01:49That was Takim's only job for two whole years.
01:54Becoming one of the cooks is a rite of passage.
01:57They get paid just over $12 a day if they work fast.
02:01In this part of Indonesia, that's a dollar above the minimum wage, which can be hard to come by here.
02:17Next, they pump the soybean paste into one of these concrete basins.
02:29These are heated by furnaces that use plastic trash as fuel.
02:34It's funny.
02:35They don't know.
02:36They don't know.
02:37They don't know what plastic is like.
02:39Let's try to imagine.
02:41Muhammad Gufron, who runs this factory, pays $9 for a truckload from a nearby dump.
02:48It's free.
02:49They don't buy it.
02:51It's been a long time.
02:53It's been a long time.
02:55That plastic lasts him about a day, but it's still much cheaper than wood, which costs more
03:03than twice as much.
03:05And they would need a lot of it.
03:08Because this paste has to get really hot before it separates into pulp and this soybean water.
03:15Workers drain the mixture into this cheesecloth and swirl it around to remove as much water as possible.
03:28Workers get covered in this liquid as it sprays everywhere.
03:32Many develop a skin fungus that forms painful blisters.
03:41Many develop a skin fungus that forms painful blisters.
03:44If you need it, you'll definitely work.
03:47Do you choose to work or not?
03:49Most of them choose to work.
03:51If you have a sick, you choose to work.
03:53People who work here are also breathing in toxic fumes all day long.
04:12We are going to measure the air pollution.
04:17Daru Setiorini works for Ekoton, a local environmental group that tracks pollution in the area.
04:24The standard is 150 micrograms.
04:28But this reads 1,500.
04:32That means there are 10 times more particles, like microplastics and other toxic chemicals, floating in the air than the safe limit set by the World Health Organization and by the Indonesian government.
04:44As part of Ekoton's research, Daru tests these surfaces too.
04:50She sets out a petri dish, usually for about eight hours, to capture falling particles.
04:56This time, she left it here for just 30 minutes, and then took it back to the lab for testing.
05:03This is also one type of microplastics.
05:06This is a form of fiber.
05:10This is also a film.
05:12This is also a microplastic.
05:14This is also a form of microplastics.
05:16This is also a form of microplastics.
05:19Those microplastics, and the contaminants they attract, all end up in this tofu.
05:33So when people eat tofu, the microplastics will be bad impact to our hormone system, digestive system, and our reproductive system as well.
05:44It can cause infertility in the male.
05:48Despite the risks, tofu production hasn't stopped.
05:53Once the men have strained the pulp, they add fermented coconut water to the leftover soybean liquid.
06:03Within minutes, the mixture congeals into curds.
06:08Workers scoop those out, and transfer them to these molds.
06:13The men don't use any measuring tools.
06:22They have to eyeball how much they scoop in.
06:25If it does, Takim has to redo the batch.
06:41And he doesn't get paid for what he throws out.
06:44The tofu curds are pressed between layers of cheesecloth.
06:50Stacking the crates squeezes out excess water, forming these solid blocks of tofu.
06:59Women take over for the next step.
07:04They use rusty grill grates to cut the chunks of tofu into even rectangles.
07:14And then they package it.
07:17The Indonesian government hasn't managed to stop the practice of cooking tofu in toxic environments.
07:25The country banned burning plastic outside in 2008.
07:29But tofu factories do it in furnaces.
07:32So it's mostly out of sight.
07:34And it helps solve a huge national problem.
07:39Getting rid of trash that isn't even supposed to be here.
07:44A lot of the trash in Indonesia comes from places like Europe, Australia, and the United States.
07:51Which started shipping its waste here in the early 2000s.
07:57Indonesia's lax environmental regulations and low labor costs made doing that cheaper.
08:05Western nations started exporting even more here in 2018.
08:10After China banned plastic waste imports.
08:13Turning the country into one of the world's top dumping grounds.
08:17A lot of this plastic is single use.
08:20And cannot be recycled even in countries with developed infrastructure.
08:25I think this one is from Europa.
08:29This is from Italy.
08:31Even the kinds that are recyclable often don't get processed here.
08:36Indonesia already have problems with our own domestics.
08:39We have lack of capacity.
08:41They keep adding more burden to us.
08:43It's really irresponsible.
08:45In 2019, the situation got so bad.
08:49Indonesia rejected 58 container ships carrying trash from the United States.
08:55But reportedly, only 12 made it back.
08:59Many of the rest were dumped in other developing countries.
09:03To stem the flow, Indonesia banned all plastic trash imports as of 2025.
09:09But they keep coming anyway.
09:12Sometimes, importers bribe customs officers to get plastic in more easily, according to one report.
09:19Countries are still allowed to export other types of trash, like paper, here.
09:24But for every 3 million tons of waste labeled as paper, about 450,000 tons are actually plastic, according to Ecotone's reporting.
09:36In May 2025, months after the ban took effect, the US illegally shipped about 5 million pounds of plastic in a single month.
09:46And these factories have become a way to get rid of it.
09:52This facility gets tofu pre-made, and fries it up over stoves fueled by plastic, too.
10:00People are already aware, yeah, that this job have high risk.
10:10They need to make a living, and they see this plastic fuel is very effective.
10:16So people think it's good for them, but actually they become a victim.
10:2250-year-old Suwaria has worked at this factory nearly every day, for almost half of her life.
10:30She says plastic makes the flames burn stronger.
10:34Yeah, it's hot. It's cold.
10:37She cooks five batches a day, to earn her $3 wage.
10:42It's not alive.
10:44It's hot.
10:45It's hot.
10:46It's hot.
10:47It's hot.
10:48It's hot.
10:49It's hot.
10:50It's hot.
10:51It's hot.
10:52So it's hot.
10:53Snack wrappers are among the most dangerous kinds of plastic to burn, because they contain dyes
11:00that can make fumes extra poisonous.
11:03Here in Troporo Village, these factories aren't just unsafe for workers.
11:24They are also polluting the air, with toxic emissions about 20 times the national limit.
11:31In 2019, researchers found that free-range chicken eggs from around here contained dioxin levels
11:3870 times higher than the safe limit.
11:41That chemical is extremely poisonous.
11:44It can damage the liver even in tiny amounts, and can cause serious birth defects and cancer.
11:51The only place with more toxic eggs in Asia was Vietnam, where the US dropped the now-banned
11:57chemical weapon Agent Orange during the war.
12:00But instead of cracking down, the Indonesian government appointed a panel of experts to dispute the findings.
12:07Meanwhile, those chemicals are also seeping into the water supply.
12:13And this is the wastewater from the process.
12:18It will just discharge without any filtration or any treatment to the nearby waterways.
12:26While the Indonesian government has outright banned plastic imports, activists say they haven't seen much change.
12:42Do you believe that those developed countries care about the world being here?
12:49No.
12:50They are so mean.
12:51They are so cruel.
12:52They are irresponsible.
12:53But some locals, for whom this tofu is a staple, refuse to believe the worst, like Titin, who has been buying from factories like this one since she was a child.
13:13No, almost every day.
13:14Titin mostly buys the wet kind.
13:19Historically, tofu has been especially popular among low-income groups.
13:26In fact, Indonesians eat more of it than they do beef or chicken.
13:44And for generations, it was good for you.
13:48Traditionally, factories cooked tofu over discarded rice husks, wood, and other biodegradables.
13:55They were free and generally safer to burn.
13:59But as plastic piled up, it slowly took over as the main fuel source.
14:05And what was once a nutritious meal, quietly became a toxic one.
14:11The danger isn't apparent right away.
14:24But over the years, dozens of reports have warned against this tofu, including a documentary that went viral in early 2025.
14:33There is plastic, fumigated tofu that is quietly feeding and poisoning entire cities.
14:42But surprisingly, factory owners and workers told us sales shot up the first month after the video was published.
14:49Today, food stands, markets, and restaurants all get their tofu from factories like Kufrons.
15:04Some recipes have become beloved local specialties, like the popular street food called Tahu Tek, which got its name from the sounds vendors make as they go around selling it on the streets.
15:16Even knowing how it's prepared doesn't stop locals like Sri Surya from enjoying this meal.
15:30The taste is quite special for me.
15:33We eat tofu from the very beginning of our life.
15:37It's actually easy to find and it's also affordable.
15:41And she believes the actions of the West are simply an oversight.
15:47It is possible that they only do not know how the trash is used in developing countries.
15:54That's why they're still continuing this.
15:57But once they know, I'm sure that they will end.
Aren't they the ones wanting to buy the plastic? Also, it's their choice to use the plastic, there's wood out there they can burn, they can use kindles, cloth, all sorts of fabrics, everyone around the world, unless they live in a desert has the choice of what to sue for fire, and Indonesia isn't a poor country.
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