Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
Listen now wherever you get your BBC podcasts.
Sandy beaches, laid-back surfers, ancient temples and lush green rice paddies. That's what you might imagine when you think of Bali. And in many ways, it's the ultimate tropical paradise. But like a lot of tourist hotspots, it's also got a problem when it comes to plastic, particularly single-use plastic and how to get rid of it. A study from 2021 found that Indonesia was the world's fifth biggest contributor to marine waste. And
And now Bali's governor has set an ambitious goal. He wants to make the island totally waste-free by 2027. So how realistic is that and what would it actually take to make it happen? That's what we're going to be talking about on this episode of What in the World from the BBC World Service. I'm Hannah Gelbark.
And joining us from our Jakarta bureau is the BBC's Hannah Samos here. Hi, welcome to the podcast. Hi. When you've been to Bali, how much of a problem does it actually have with waste? Can you see the rubbish and pollution there? The last time I went to Bali was last year. And when I walked around Bali, I didn't see any sign of a waste problem on the surface. Like there was no big pile of trash there.
Yes, I saw a small amount of trash here and there, but it was relatively normal, just like in Jakarta or even in London, where you can see a tiny pile of trash here and there. But if you go to the landfill, you will see a mountain of trash because the Balinese landfill right now is in the stage of overcapacity.
The problem is Indonesians and Balinese in particular are not used to sorting waste. In metropolitan areas, the people are more aware of it, but in rural areas, they are still not used to sorting waste. I spoke to an environment expert, and according to his study, 70% of Bali's total waste is
is organic waste, which people should be able to process themselves, but they are not. So the impact is that the landfill right now is filled with organic waste. If you see a viral videos of a big pile of trash,
on popular beaches in Bali, it always happens at the end of the year. It is because of the change of the season. Due to the change of seasons, rubbish from the islands around Bali is carried away to the coast of Bali.
Why this is happening? Because waste management is also a big problem in other parts of Indonesia. So right now Indonesians are waiting for the government to address this issue, especially in Bali because some said that Bali is the face of Indonesia. Balinese people have their own tradition of processing waste. So every traditional Balinese household
has a hole where they can throw their organic waste. But the problem in the modern day is the plastic waste, right? So many people don't know what to do with the plastic waste. And only around 40% of the population in Indonesia has access to waste collection services.
many people end up burning it and causing pollution. And how much does tourism play into the province, particularly in Bali? It's one of the most popular parts of Southeast Asia for tourists to visit. Yes, it is a very popular tourist destination. And Bali now has a population of 4 million residents. But this tiny island welcomes around 16 million tourists every year.
And a recent study found that tourists produce three and a half times more waste than the locals.
And the problem right now is that the government always sets a high tourist target for Bali every year. So now activists urge the government to think more about the environmental preservation rather than just profit. So now the governor of Bali has said that he wants the island to be totally waste-free by 2027. What does waste-free actually mean?
There is no exact explanation from the government. Some said that they want to get rid of the plastic waste, but some said that they want to stop using the landfill. So even the definition from the government itself is not clear enough for the people to understand. So it will be very hard for Bali to achieve the goal that doesn't even concrete.
And what would this actually mean for Bali? What would it actually involve? Okay, there are two main areas here. So the first one is to reduce the waste. And the second one is how to manage the waste that already exists. So the first one, to reduce the waste, government banned government offices and public schools
to provide or sell plastic packaged food and beverages, like for meetings or to sell in cafeterias. And for the waste management, there are several steps. The first one is each village must have regulations to transport waste separately
If not, there will be sanction in the form of delays in financial assistance for the village and also delays in incentives for the village officials. The second one, the government wants to enhance organic waste processing using modern compost and also inorganic waste is taken to the waste bank to be recycled.
and the government is trying to build recycled sites, but until now, this recycling site is still limited.
The next step is the waste that cannot be recycled will be taken to the residual waste management site. So at this site, the waste will be processed using an incinerator that burns at 800 to 1000 degrees Celsius. Bali has only given itself two years to get to a zero waste initiative. What would
would that mean for some of the tourist industries, the hotels and restaurants? How would they have to act differently to get to zero waste? Okay, so the government also announced new regulations that required businesses including hotels, malls and eateries to form waste management units and handle rubbish properly.
And businesses that fail to comply risk having their permits revoked, while those who successfully manage their waste will receive incentives. So right now, all foreign visitors to Bali must pay
150,000 rupiahs or around 10 US dollars to enter Bali and the funds collected will be used for waste management programs. In Bali do people tend to drink bottled water? Do they have to buy water in plastic bottles or can they drink tap water? How available is tap water to drink from? The tap water in Bali is not drinkable so they have to buy plastic bottled water or they can
cook the tap water in 100 degrees Celsius. But the problem is that the tourists, they don't want to consume tap water even though it has been cooked. So as I said before, tourists produce three and a half times more waste than the locals. So
If they drink more plastic bottled water, you can imagine how much plastic waste will be produced in Bali. What about the smaller everyday things like paper straws instead of plastic straws, refillable bottles? Will there be drinking water sites on the island so that people don't need to buy so much plastic for water bottles?
Yeah, there is no such specific rule at this time, but the experts urge the government to even stop single-use plastic products to enter Bali because once it is in Bali, the people in Bali will eventually consume or use it. But the government has not responded yet to the urge by the activists.
Of course, Bali isn't the first place on the world to try to go zero waste. There are places like San Francisco in the US and Kamikatsu in Japan. They've also made strides in the right direction, but nowhere has managed to go 100% waste free. And it sounds like Bali may also not be able to do that. But from the people that you've spoken to and from your research in this area, what kind of progress do you think Bali might make in this direction?
Experts are pretty pessimistic. They said it is impossible to get rid of the trash if single-use plastic package products can still be used massively in Bali.
Activists urge the government to block all single-use plastic packages from entering Bali. And also the problem of waste management in Indonesia in general is the budget. So experts say that the government's program is good, but it is useless if the local government doesn't have enough funds to run it.
Hannah, thank you so much. Thank you. And thank you for joining us. This is What's in the World from the BBC World Service. I'm Hannah Gelbart and we'll be back with another episode soon. See you then.
I'm Zing Singh. And I'm Simon Jack. And together we host Good Bad Billionaire. The podcast exploring the lives of some of the world's richest people. In the new season, we're setting our sights on some big names. Yep, LeBron James and Martha Stewart, to name just a few. And as always, Simon and I are trying to decide whether we think they're good, bad or just another billionaire. That's Good Bad Billionaire from the BBC World Service. Listen now wherever you get your BBC podcasts.