It is that time of year again! For Bali lovers who return to the island year after year, you’ll know all too well what we are talking about; for first-time visitors to the island, it’s time to brace yourself.
It’s plastic tide season, and we’re going to tell you everything you need to know to navigate this unfortunate annual occurrence in South Bali.
Bali is known to be one of the most beautiful islands in the world. With pristine white sandy beaches, and volcanic black sand stretches of coast, it is the beaches that have tourists returning year after year.
However, there is a darker, more unpleasant reality to face at Bali’s most famous beaches. Every year, during the rainy season, tons upon tons of plastic trash and debris wash up on the shores.
This week, the first major plastic tide of the season washed up on Bali’s Samigita Beach. The Samigita Beach is a huge stretch of the central southern coast of Badung Regency and is comprised of Kuta Beach, Legian Beach, and Seminyak Beach.
Earlier this week, a whopping 150 tonnes of plastic waste and debris were evacuated and removed from the beachfront, and teams from the Badung Regency Environment and Sanitation Agency (LHK) are braced and ready for more as the rainy season progresses.
Speaking to reporters the Coordinator of Marine Debris Evacuation Detection of the Badung LHK Service, Made Gede Dwipayan, explained that plastic tides have been washing up on the shores of Kuta Beach, Legian Beach, and Seminyak Beach bit by bit since the end of November.
During this first wave of the clean up mission, 75 trucks have been dispatched to the beachfronts to remove the trash to make the beaches useable again.
Kuta Beach has been worst hit in this current surge, with 80 tons of waste deposited on the shore, followed by 40 tons collected in Seminyak and around 30 tons from Legian Beach.
Drift wood, tree branches and tree trunks also make up for a significant amount of the natural debris washed up along the shore.
The majority of the waste is first taken to Mengwi Recycling Center, and the wood is sent to the chipper; all that is not useable or recyclable is sent to the local open landfill site, known as a TPA.
Dwipayan confirmed that the beaches are seeing the ‘normal’ amount of debris for this time of year and that his teams are ready to handle the situation as it unfolds.
He explained, “The condition of last year’s waste shipments is almost the same. The months are also almost the same. Last year’s total waste shipments were also the same, almost 150 tons.”
He shared that he hopes the situation remains stable, noting “We don’t know what the future will be like, whether there will be a significant increase or what, we don’t know, it also depends on the weather.”
Tourists traveling to Bali during the rainy season should be aware that Jimbaran Beach, Kedonganan Beach, Pantai Jerman, Kuta Beach, Legian Beach, Double Six Beach, Seminyak Beach, and Petitenget Beach are all frequently affected by tides of ocean waste.
While Badung Regency responds as quickly as possible to the tides, sometimes the deposits take days to clean up.
Last rainy season Jimbaran Beach and neighbouring Kedonganan Beach were hit by one of the worst plastic tides in history, with the debris reaching 1m in depth in some places.
Ocean plastic pollution is an issue faced by every single meter of coastline in the world. Whether huge deposits of plastic waste like seen in Bali, or microplastics hidden in the sand, plastic pollution is now an unavoidable reality.
However, the huge tides of plastic waste do not impact every beach in Bali.
Beaches like Sanur, Candidasa, Amed, Lovina and most of the coastlines around Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan and Nusa Ceningan tend not to be impacted by the currents that carry the trash.
The beaches in Bali’s busiest areas, Uluwatu and Canggu, tend not to be too badly affected by plastic tides due to the flow of the prevailing ocean currents. However, they have been known to see huge debris deposits in the rainy season.
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