Plastic waste and other garbage are removed from a beach in the Kedonganan Badung Regency on the Indonesian island of Bali
SONNY TUMBELAKA
By AFP -Agence France Presse
Volunteers clear a Bali beach of the “worst” monsoon garbage
Hundreds of volunteers took part in a clean-up in Bali, Indonesia, on Saturday as monsoon rains brought what one activist described as “the worst” waves of plastic waste to hit tourists' favorite beaches.
The Southeast Asian nation is one of the world's biggest contributors to plastic pollution and marine debris, with annual monsoon rains and winds sweeping mountains of plastic waste from its cities and rivers into the ocean.
Some of it is swept for hundreds of kilometers before reaching the island's vacation beaches, especially between November and March.
On Kedonganan beach, in the south of the island, empty plastic cups, straws, cutlery, and coffee sachets were strewn across the sand, mixed with plant and wood debris.
Around 600 volunteers, including residents, hotel workers, and tourists, braved a rainy morning to collect the garbage by hand before filling hundreds of large bags.
Environmental NGO Sungai Watch called this plastic waste pollution “the worst” ever recorded in Bali.
“We have never seen plastic a meter thick on the sand. In just six days of cleaning, we collected 25 tons, which is a record for us,” said Sungai Watch founder Gary Bencheghib.
Bencheghib said that an audit found that most of the plastic waste came from cities in neighboring Java, Indonesia's most populous island.
Tatiana Komelova, a Russian volunteer tourist, said the sight of the pollution shocked her and motivated her to reduce the use of plastic in her daily life.
“I knew the problem existed, but I didn't know it was so serious,” she said.
“I use a lot of plastic products in my life, and now I try to reduce them as much as possible.”
str-agn/ebe/fox
Comments