Bali’s Kuta beach has been removed from tons of plastic waste

Bali’s Kuta beach has been removed from tons of plastic waste

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(CNN) – Numerous rubbish washed up on the famous Kuta beach in Bali, prompting the residents to clean up on the first day of the new year.

Residents of the Badung area on the Indonesian island have cleared 30 tons of sea debris from the beach, according to the state-run Antara news agency.

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

The rubbish was apparently loaded on trucks and transported to a landfill.

Plastic garbage and other marine debris flush out on Kuta Beach annually during the monsoon season, Badung’s head of the environmental office, Wayan Puja, said according to Antara. The official blamed the mismanagement of garbage.

On January 1, 2021, workers dump piles of debris and plastic debris brought in by strong waves at Kuta Beach in Bali, Indonesia.

On January 1, 2021, workers dump piles of debris and plastic debris brought in by strong waves at Kuta Beach in Bali, Indonesia.

Nagi / EPA-EFE / Shutterstock Made

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 6 kg of plastic waste in its stomach.
In April, the Indonesian government launched a plan to dramatically reduce plastic waste in the country, Antara reported. It is planned to reduce plastic waste from the ocean by 70% by 2025 and to be free of plastic pollution by 2040.

Although Kuta Beach faces the problem annually, unlike previous years, far fewer travelers are currently seeing it. Like many popular destinations, Bali was hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic and is still closed to international tourists.

Tjokorda Oka Artha Ardana Sukawati, Bali’s vice governor and former chairman of the island’s hotel and restaurant association, told CNN Travel in an interview in August 2020 that reopening is critical to the island’s economy.

“The Covid-19 pandemic is the most devastating disaster for Bali tourism,” he said. “It is much worse than the bombings on Bali, both the first and the second, and worse than all the eruptions on Mount Agung.”

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