Waste management in Bali has long been a hot topic, with recent photographs of Kuta Beach, a tourist island in the south, filled with heaps of plastic bottles, food containers, and abandoned shopping bags. Bali’s $40 million, continually escalating waste problem should be addressed with the help of a new tourist tax targeted at foreign tourists, Indonesia’s Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment said.
Although the island is frequently advertised as a picture-perfect vacation spot, the harsh truth of its mounting trash has been simmering for years, with an increasing number of shocked tourists uploading pictures and videos of beaches covered in mountains of trash on Instagram and TikTok.
Tonnes of plastic wash up on famous beaches like Kuta, Seminyak, and Legian every year during Indonesia’s wet season, which lasts from October to March.
The government’s effort to tackle this problem by opening a few waste management facilities does not help Bali’s waste problem all that much. Even recently, the Municipal Government of Denpasar has responded by reacting to a rising public outcry about the foul odours coming from the recently established Coordinated Waste Management Depot (TPST) in the Village of Kesiman Kertalanggu, East Denpasar. According to the local news, on the evening of the 21st of July 2023, the Deputy Mayor of Denpasar, I Kadek Arya Wibawa, called a meeting at the Community Hall (Bale) of Banjar Biaung, Kesiman Kertalanggu.
According to Arya Wibawa, the public meeting’s objective was to find a solution that would benefit all sides in a “win-win” situation.
For the Municipal Government of Denpasar, Wibawa stated that trash management is paramount. However, he said that the City Government is also aware of the public’s accusations that the waste disposal facility’s unpleasant odours are infiltrating the nearby villages in Kesiman Kertalanggu. “The government is attending the meeting at Banjar Biaung to meet with the public and discuss how to find the best solution so that the waste management is done in an optimal way that does not disturb the public,” the government added.
Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, Indonesia’s Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment, expressed concern last week that the waste management issue may become “uncontrollable” and added that the recently imposed tourist tax “is good for Bali.”
The Indonesian government stated in July that starting in the middle of 2024, every foreign tourist in Bali will be obliged to pay a charge of IDR 150,000 for the new tourist tax policy.
Pandjaitan suggested that the new tourist tax should be used to manage Bali’s waste problem. “The garbage needs to be cleaned; there is now a foul smell. I advised the Mayor of Denpasar to fix it without making it a political issue since it should be fixed to stop the foul smell.” he said
The Minister made his remarks in response to a viral video on Instagram showing an illegal 50-meter-tall “open dump” that looked like a vast waterfall and was loaded with garbage.
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The video was recorded by Bali-based co-founder of Sungai Watch, Gary Bencheghib, last week and posted online, shocking hundreds of viewers who called the scene “so sad” and “totally heartbreaking”.
In an interview with the Business Times last week, Bencheghib estimated that closing Bali’s illegal trash dumps would cost USD 40 million over the following three years.
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