An estimated of 18 tons of garbage has been collected by Local authorities in Bali. The waste collected mostly consists of plastic and tree branches washed up ashore. The activity lasted for three days at the famous coastal beach of Kuta in Badung Regency in Bali.

The trash collection was started on Sunday by officials from Badung Environmental Agency. As per an estimate by the agency, six tons of trash on an average was collected each day of operation. The trash was then transported on three trucks.

“We carried out [the clean-up efforts] starting on Sunday afternoon. This is a routine process that we have carried out for a long time,” said Gede Dwipayana, the agency’s fast response unit coordinator, as quoted by kompas.com on Wednesday. 

Dwipayana further explained that this trash is the one that flowed down rivers throughout the regency into the ocean. Most of the trash had been washed downstream due to the increased precipitation of the rainy season.

Bali is one of the top among the dozen Islands affected by the grappling problem of marine and coastal litter in the archipelago. 

As per an estimate in 2017 by Research by the Environment and Forestry Ministry’s Environmental Pollution and Damage Control Directorate General there is about 1.2 million tons of ocean trash is spread throughout the Indonesia, most of which is plastic and wood.

Even though the origin of trash is difficult to trace, an estimate by analysts agree that almost 80 percent of the trash comes from the Island itself. as garbage collected by informal workers at hotels and villages is reportedly often dumped in rivers that carry the waste to sea and onto the island’s beaches..

As per a prediction by Dwipayana , the volume of trash is going to increase in the coming months due to the rainy season which normally lasts until April.

Dwipayana has also confirmed that to increase the clean up effort in the predicted pile up of garbage, a 12 person team has been prepared to control and lead the clean up efforts at some of the main tourist hubs of the Island including Seminyak, Kuta and Legian beaches.

The garbage collected from the sites will be taken to a temporary dumping site in Tuban.