Bali’s battle with waste management is no secret. From open landfills to tides of plastic trash and rivers blocked with debris, leaders in Bali are acutely aware that more needs to be done to tackle the problem, especially in the island’s leading tourism resorts.
Leaders in Bali have made the controversial decision to burn plastic waste that washed up on Labuan Sait Beach in Uluwatu on Wednesday 26th March.
The clean up operation was held ahead of the Melasti Ceremony, a ritual procession and ceremony that happens ahead of the Balinese holy day of silence known as Nyepi.
Speaking to reporters the Coordinator of Marine Waste Detection and Evacuation of the Badung LHK Service I Made Gde Dwipayana, confirmed that he had deployed 70 personnel to help with the cleanup operation. The tide of waste contained mostly plastic waste and driftwood.
Dwipayana told reporters “The total waste that we transported at Labuan Sait Beach is around 7 trucks or 14 tons. Can’t be brought up, have to be burned, what can be used is not burned.”
He added “In the past, I rented a pulley to transport wood waste to the top, but the process took a long time, because there was a lot of garbage. So the use of this pulley is not effective, because the time is running out.”
Dwipayana noted that plastic waste was collected into sacks and removed from the beach and was not burned. The same tide of waste also hit the famous Dreamland Beach. He shared “Dreamland Beach has almost the same obstacles. Later after Nyepi maybe we will be attention.”
He explained that a community effort is underway, known as gotong royong, to clean up Bali ahead of the festival season. Dwipayana said “Our neighborhood roads and beaches are cleaned before Pemelastian. We involved all of them so that more than a thousand people came down directly to gotong royong.”
He confirmed that even though the beach is now clean, the garbage evacuation process at Labuan Sait Beach is still a challenge for his teams.
Smaller pieces of driftwood such as twigs have been burned, though larger pieces of wood must be cut with a chainsaw, then manually carried to the area near a dry river to be burned. He confirmed that the full clean-up operation should be completed before Galungan Festival begins on 23rd April 2025.
Labuan Sait Beach is not the only beach to have been hit with a tide of plastic waste this week. Though the monsoon season in Bali is coming to a close, and with the reduction in the amount of plastic tides washing up on Bali’s shores, the final throws of the season are dragging on.
Bali’s Samigita Beach, which is the local name for the stretch of coastline that runs from Kuta Beach through to Seminyak Beach, has also been hit with plastic waste and driftwood, along with Jimbraran and Kedonganan Beach. Dwipayana has confirmed that each beach has seen 10-20 tonnes of debris washed up in the last three days alone.
Speaking to reporters on Monday afternoon, Dwipayana shared “It was safe for two weeks, but now the shipment has reappeared in all coastal zones.”
He confirmed that he and his teams will clean the streets on the night before Nyepi Day after the Ogoh-Ogoh parades have been completed, but that any debris that washes up on the beaches on the night of the 28th March will have to wait until the 30th March to be cleaned up.
Dwipayana told reporters “During the night of the Nyepi celebration, we will focus on cleaning the road to clean up the dirty area. Later after the retreat, we will return to the beach.”
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