Kuta beach in Bali has cleaned up tons of plastic waste

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(CNN) – Tons of trash has washed up on Bali’s famous Kuta Beach, causing locals to spend the first day of the New Year cleaning up.

According to the state-run Antara news agency, residents of the Badung area of ​​the Indonesian island have removed 30 tons of marine debris from the beach.

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

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

Plastic waste and other marine debris washes up on Kuta beach every year during the monsoon season, said Wayan Puja, head of Badung’s environmental bureau, Antara reported. The official blamed the problem on waste mismanagement.

Workers clean up piles of debris and plastic waste brought in by strong waves on Kuta Beach in Bali, Indonesia on January 1, 2021.

Workers clean up piles of debris and plastic waste brought in by strong waves on Kuta Beach in Bali, Indonesia on January 1, 2021.

Made Nagi / EPA-EFE / Shutterstock

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 in the ocean by 70% by 2025 and be free of plastic pollution by 2040.

Although Kuta Beach faces the problem every year, unlike in previous years, there are far fewer travelers 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 August 2020 interview, Tjokorda Oka Artha Ardana Sukawati, Deputy Governor of Bali and former chairman of the island’s hotel and restaurant association, told CNN Travel that reopening is critical to the island’s economy.

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

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