Bali fights for its beautiful beaches by rethinking waste, plastic trash
From single-use plastic bans to education, Bali is digging deep to preserve its pristine reputation and save its tourism industry.
What’s the first thing about Bali that comes to mind? Likely its beautiful, pristine beaches. But beaches on the paradisiacal island in the Indonesian archipelago increasingly feature not shells, but rather, plastic trash.
Plastic waste has been piling up on Bali, fueled by a lack of infrastructure—or an official plan—to deal with it. Also contributing to bottle- and bag-strewn beaches are growing tourism, ingrained cultural practices, and a lack of awareness about the lifecycle of plastic from disposal, to sea, to washing up on beaches as trash.
In a 2015 study in Science of the top 20 countries that poorly managed plastic waste, Indonesia was listed second. The nation generated 3.2 million tonnes of plastic in 2010, and nearly half
