Bali has confirmed that through the monsoon season to date, over 3,000 tonnes of ocean debris and trash have been cleared from the island’s most popular tourist beaches.
During the monsoon season, from late November to early April, tides of trash land upon Bali’s southern coast almost every day.
The Badung Regency Government has confirmed that the tides of plastic that have been landed on Bali’s beaches have started to subside. Nevertheless, with monsoon season not yet over, the Environmental and Sanitation Agency is braced and ready for further tides of plastic waste at any time.
So far this season the Environmental and Sanitation Agency (LHK) has cleared over 3,100 tonnes of waste from the beaches along the Badung Regency Coast.
Badung Regency is Bali’s most popular region for tourism, home to resorts like Uluwatu, Jimbaran, Kuta, Legian, Seminyak, and Canggu.
Speaking to reporters the Coordinator of Marine Waste Detection and Evacuation of the Badung LHK Service, Made Gede Dwipayana, explained “Although the amount of waste has subsided, we at the Badung Regency LHK Service are still on standby in the field because in general, the season for marine waste in the western coast has stopped completely in April. In fact, the last time seaweed appeared.”
He shared “In general, the condition of the entire west coast from Cemagi to Pecatu is still hit by waste shipments with a thin volume. Most of the waste is in the form of twigs and plastic.” In tourist terms, he referred to the stretch of coast that runs from Uluwatu all the way through to Canggu and Seseh. He confirmed that the majority of the waste is made up of plastic and driftwood.
Dwipayana added “Only Kedonganan and Jimbaran Beaches are still experiencing significant amounts of waste compared to other beaches in Badung. However, the condition has declined.”
He confirmed that the worst affected beaches in 2025 are the same beaches that are typically worst hit by tides of plastic waste, namely Kedonganan, and Jimbaran. Over 700 trucks worth of waste have been removed from Kedonganan and Jimbaran over the last few months, with more gathering trash every day.
Over in Seminyak, Legian, and Kuta, up to 30 trucks a day are filled with ocean debris that is sorted and taken to recycling depots or landfills.
Throughout the Badung Regency area 12 tippers, diggers, and loaders are on standby to tackle the trash mountains, along with 500 staff from the Badung Environmental and Sanitation Agency.
Though it has been confirmed that the tides are turning as the monsoon season starts to come to a close, there is still a high chance that tourists will encounter trash on beaches like Kedonganan and Jimbaran, even Seminyak, Legian, and Kuta too.
Though teams from the Badung Environmental and Sanitation Agency start clean-up operations in the very early morning and are usually finished cleaning the beaches by 10 am, tourists who wish to have a nearly guaranteed trash-free beach in Bali at this time of year, need to look a little off path from Bali’s most in-demand destinations.
There are classic Bali coastal resorts that are seldom hit with tides of plastic waste, Sanur and Nusa Dua to be precise.
Sitting on the opposite side of the Bukit Peninsula, the direction of the tides does not pull in ocean debris to these areas. Sanur is known as Bali’s OG coastal retreat and Nusa Dua is Bali’s most luxurious resort area, home to the highest concentration of five-star hotels on the island.
Heading a little more off-path, achieving both trash-free and crowd-free beaches, holidaymakers can venture to coastal hangouts in East Bali, like Amed and Candidasa, or travel northward to Lovina or Pemuteran for a more low-key beach getaway.
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Ken
Tuesday 11th of March 2025
It's true that the rubbish should be dealt with before it's thrown into the rivers. However, it's complicated because it's mostly dumped in Java. Java is unconcerned about Bali and Bali can't collect it there.
Robert Wilson
Tuesday 11th of March 2025
Maybe good idea to stop the trucks from randomly dumping rubbish into the creeks from the side of the road up in the hills of Bali ??
Glenn
Monday 10th of March 2025
I am curious to know how much of the plastic washed up on the beaches like Jimbaran actually comes from the streets, rather than the ocean. I was on Jimbarin Beach on Valentine’s Day this year and was shocked by the amount of rubbish on the beach as many were looking on, hoping for a romantic sunset dinner, yet confronted with a rubbish tip along the beach.
The following day as I walked along the beach, I noticed these open drains between restaurants every hundred meters or so, that were basically washing rubbish from the street. There was also a huge cleanup going on with machines and people…don’t ask me why they decided to clean the after the most romantic day of the year!
I just payed the new Bali Tourism Levy for my whole family which is designed to help Bali’s environment. Could catchments be built for these drains to prevent rubbish making it to the ocean in the first place, rather than using machinery on the beach to remove a lot that could have been avoided??
Wayan Mataram
Saturday 8th of March 2025
Edited comment by Wayan Mataram : Next after West side Bali Peninsula at Badung regency, the Ocean Debris will drift to East side of Bali Peninsula on shore line along Sanur up to Nusa Dua areas next April to October due to wind directional change shifting to blow from West to East/Easternsouth in every 6 months cycle directional changing. This cycle will be repeating every year. To prevent these happening, the most effective way to prevent ocean debris drifted to beaches is by intercepting it while still floating in the middle of ocean by deploying the advance Ocean Cleaning technology's machine instead of mobilizing people and heavy equipments to do the job LINKLINK
Steve b
Sunday 9th of March 2025
@Wayan Mataram, wrong again. Stop the dumping on land all over the island before it washed out to sea. If you are indoneasion Wich your nama clearly suggests I can understand you can not grasp the situation I say that with due respect
Mr Bear Snr
Friday 7th of March 2025
250 million Indonesians living here and they blame 6 million tourists for the rubbish. The Bart Simpson excuse."I didn't do it"