Kuta beach in Bali cleared of tons of plastic waste

Tons of garbage dumped on Bali’s famous Kuta Beach, prompting locals to spend the first day of the New Year organizing a cleanup.

Residents of the Badung region on the Indonesian island removed 30 tons of marine debris from the beach, according to the official Antara news agency.

“About 70% of marine debris is plastic waste,” said Colonel Made Mahaparta of the Udayana Regional Military Command in Antara.

The garbage was reportedly loaded onto trucks and transported to a landfill.

Plastic waste and other marine debris dump on Kuta beach every year during the monsoon season, Badung Environmental Bureau chief Wayan Puja said, Antara reported. The official attributed the problem to poor garbage management.

Plastic pollution is a serious problem in Indonesia. In November 2018, a dead whale was found near Kapota Island in Wakatobi National Park, near Sulawesi, with 13.2 pounds (6 kg) of plastic waste in its stomach.

In April, the Indonesian government launched a plan to drastically reduce plastic waste in the country, Antara reported. It plans to reduce plastic waste from the oceans by 70% by 2025 and stop polluting plastic by 2040.

Although Kuta Beach faces the problem every year, unlike in previous years, far fewer travelers are there to see it at the moment. Like many popular destinations, Bali has been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic and remains closed to international tourists.

During an interview in August 2020, Bali’s vice governor and former president of the island’s hotels and restaurants association, Tjokorda Oka Artha Ardana Sukawati, told CNN Travel that the reopening was essential for the island economy.

“The Covid-19 pandemic is the most devastating disaster for tourism in Bali,” he said. “It’s much worse than the Bali attacks, the first and the second, and worse than all of the Mount Agung eruptions combined.