Bali’s “garbage season” could deter tourists

Bali’s “garbage season” could deter tourists

Bali’s beaches are disappearing beneath thousands of tonnes of plastic and it’s having a real impact on tourism.

Meanwhile, our desks are also disappearing beneath great mounds discarded coffee cups and it’s having a similar impact on our colleagues.

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According to ABC‘s Indonesia correspondent, Adam Harvey, December to March is garbage season for the island’s main tourist strip.

The local response has been to sweep away as much of the garbage as possible before tourists visit beaches each morning.

Hundreds of hotel housekeeping staff members and thousands of volunteers clean up about 20 kilometres of beach each morning to try and hide the debris that washes up every night.

“I won’t bring my children down here to swim at the beach,” Samantha Marci, a tourist from Melbourne, told the ABC.

“And they want to come for the beach because they’re young, and all they want to do is surf and be in the waves.”

While some of the plastic debris comes from Bali, plenty also comes from other islands like Java and Sumatra.

Around this time of year, seasonal winds and heavy rainfall direct the rubbish to tourist hotspots like Kuta, Legian, Seminyak and Canggu.

A journal study published in Nature Communications says Indonesia is one of the worlds worst contributors of plastic pollution and estimates 200,000 tonnes of its plastic ends up in the ocean.

Email the Travel Weekly team at traveldesk@travelweekly.com.au

    Latest comments
    1. Plastic waste in Indonesia is out of control. The government, corporate companies, locals and lack of education is to blame. Bali is just the tip of the iceberg.

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