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DENPASAR, Indonesia, July 23 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Five years ago, guide Wayan Aksara noticed that more and more visitors around the Indonesian island of Bali were complaining about waste on their once immaculate beaches.
The rubbish problem in Bali also became personal for Aksara, who lives near Saba Beach – an undeveloped area near the seaside resort of Sanur, facing an incessant battle of waste thrown on its banks.
"Whenever we drove, our guests […] commented that it was not clean and that the amount of plastic was great," Aksara said. "They would say that garbage is bad, that tourism is not viable and ask what we are doing about it."
Aksara joined – and is now president – Trash Hero Indonesia, a community group of more than 20 chapters across Indonesia and about 12 in Bali. He uses social media to organize weekly garbage collection events for volunteers.
Aksara, a father of two, also gives lectures at schools and community events on how to better manage waste.
Like many parts of Asia, the Indonesian archipelago of more than 17,000 islands has a rapidly growing economy and population, and a vast coastline with many densely populated cities.
These factors created a "perfect storm" for garbage in the surrounding seas, said Susan Ruffo, executive director of the US-based nonprofit group Ocean Conservancy.
Garbage collection services and infrastructure have failed to keep pace with rapid development.
Now that awareness is rising, civil society groups like Trash Hero are playing an important role in Bali's efforts to keep its famous beaches and temples without rubbish.
On Saba Beach, surrounded by coconut palms and grazing cows, scattered garbage includes tubes of toothpaste, shoes, plastic bottles, diapers, straws and packets of cigarettes.
"There is a plastic problem in Bali … We need time but we have already started," Aksara told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. "Great things start with little things."
NO MONEY BULLET
Globally, over 8 million tons of plastic are dumped into the ocean each year , according to scientists – about a truck per minute.
China, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines and Thailand are the top five culprits, said Ruffo Ocean Conservancy.
In addition to the impacts on human health and wildlife, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, a forum of 21 countries, estimated the cost of tourism, fishing and fishing industries at $ 1.3 billion per year. maritime transport.
Stung by criticism, Indonesian President Joko Widodo – who targeted "10 new Balis" across the archipelago to boost tourism – was quick to act.
Last year, Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, the Indonesian Minister for Maritime Affairs, launched a $ 1 billion national action plan to reduce marine litter by 70 percent from here 2025.
with Muslim clerics to tell their more than 100 million followers to choose reusable bags rather than plastic bags.
Jenna Jambeck, a professor at the University of Georgia specializing in plastic waste and marine debris, said that Indonesia had become a leader in the field of the desire to "protect its incredible resources and his beautiful country ".
Bali's most popular tourist beaches are now cleaned of garbage at least once a day by local authorities using heavy machinery.
Mbad cleanings are organized at least three times a year in Bali and across Indonesia, bringing together tens of thousands of tourists and locals to tidy up communities.
Despite this, the garbage problem in Bali was so bad last year that officials declared a "garbage emergency".
"If you find plastic on the beach, it's already too late," said Ruffo of Ocean Conservancy. "It should never be there in the first place." How do you stop at the source? "
RECYCLING CAMP
It is difficult to trace the origin of garbage on the beaches of Bali but experts estimate that 80% of this waste comes from the island itself.
Waste collected in hotels and villages by informal workers is often dumped into rivers and then washed out at sea to be eventually brought back to the coast.
An increase in the use of plastic packaging over the past decade, coupled with an increase in wealth and consumption, has exacerbated the problem, said experts at the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Bali desperately needs to improve its landfill sites, invest in more recycling facilities, carry out regularly collect waste and 9, expand its piped water supply, they added.
Companies, for their part, should review the design of their products or change their materials to facilitate their reuse or recycling, Jambeck said.
Governments can also make a difference by requiring a certain amount of recycled content in products, by banning plastic bags or by taxing single-use plastics, she added. Headquartered in the cultural center of Ubud in Bali, the local Rumah Kompos company has six trucks that collect waste from hotels and private homes. The waste is then separated at the company's depot to be recycled, turned into compost or sent to landfill.
A new $ 1 million recycling center, funded by the government, will strengthen Rumah Kompos' capacity later this year, said director Supardi Asmorobangun.
The facility will host local children in the weekend's green camps, with a movie showing films on climate change and plastic waste, he said.
The company also began piloting a free reusable water bottle project in Ubud schools.
"My dream for the next five years is that all the villages in Bali will separate," Asmorobangun said. "We have to do it now, not tomorrow."
TRASH TECH
New technologies and the Asian army of informal pickers and scavengers are also key tools, according to experts.
At Sanur Kaja village in Denpasar, garbage collectors reap the financial benefits of participating in a pilot project led by Gringgo Trash Tech, which is reflected in a row of new motorcycles parked near the gathering facilities waste from the municipality.
The company mapped Denpasar and launched a self-financing project last year using existing waste management infrastructure to improve recycling and collection.
Apps and GPS helped create a zoning system in the village of 5,000 residents, allowing garbage collectors to become better organized and more efficient. As a result, they can collect more garbage from more households to increase their incomes.
"If these guys stop working, this town will be closed in less than a week," said Gringgo's co-founder, Olivier Pouillon.
In addition to improving coordination with local authorities, the Gringgo application provides the latest prices for recyclable waste.
The system currently serves about 60-65% of the village, with three times more waste collected, said Mr. Pouillon.
"The quickest way to stop pollution is to know where the waste is going, and that's exactly what we did," he said. (Report by Michael Taylor, Editing by Megan Rowling and Laurie Goering.) Please thank the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the Thomson Reuters Charitable Branch, for covering humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, property rights , climate change and resilience. .org)
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