The NbC Sift Through Garbage While On Tour In Indonesia

Chapter 1: The Bokit Region, Bali

The Bokit is one of the most amazing stretches of coastline in Indonesia. I visited this region for the first time 10 years ago and was overwhelmed with its natural beauty, local hospitality, reefs and surf breaks. Returning to this region over the past ten years I have witnessed a lot of change and development. Some areas are now pretty much unrecognisable due to hotel developments which have replaced small bamboo warungs. This change in tourism to the region has created added strain’s on the natural environment and the difference is mainly seen in land clearing and the amount of rubbish found in the region. Chatting to local people it’s clear that majority of them are putting in efforts to eradicate the rubbish problem but the sheer number of tourists visiting the region is over balancing their ability to do so. 

Chapter 2: Beach Cleaning while on Holidays

Here at The NbC we have dedicated part of our holiday time to collecting as much rubbish as humanly possible. So far we have collected 54.65kg of rubbish from the Bokit region joining forces with a fellow Australian who runs agriculture programs educating local people on sustainable farming techniques (Rescue Bali). We chatted about solutions for the region while we carried our 26kg of beach debris up 500 or steps in 27 degree humidity, it's amazing what we can achieve on holiday with two of us and four hours work. We are now in the process of uniting the warungs into a group where they can perform daily clean ups at low tide and then have a system where we can employ other local people to come and collect and recycle the debris that they collect. During these beach cleaning exercises we had mixed responses from other tourists; some praising us for our efforts and declaring that they will begin assisting while they are on the beach, others looking at us like we were the scum of the earth as we sifted through the rubbish we collected. Gaining valuable data to create the most effective solutions. To be honest, having people look at you in disgust because you are cleaning up rubbish from the beach really sheds a dark light on what some humans are becoming 'consumption robots', designed to consume as much material products as possible due to marketing and media exposure. Hopefully one day this will change and rather then them looking at us in disgust they will put down there iPhone’s and assist us in the clean ups and development of solutions. 

Chapter 3: Nusa Lembongan

After a successful jam at an open mic night in Balangan, where some crew got there dancing shoes on to my original striped back acoustic tunes, I was full of positive energy and we headed for an Island south east of Bali called Nusa Lembongan. This place is one of the most friendly and welcoming locations in the Bali region and a true reflection of Island life. We hired a motor bike and continued our clean up efforts taking us across a wooden suspension bridge and landing us on some really remote and practically untouched locations. The debris that we found there in comparison to the tourist based beaches of Bali was incomparable in terms of its density.

We found 2.56kg at one location and 8.56kg at another. We then had an American family join us to clean up one of the major tourist beaches on the island and together with their five and three year old kids we collected 16.86kg of marine and coastal debris. The majority of which was directly associated with tourist consumption such as food wrappers, plastic water bottles, beer bottles, cigarette butts and sunscreen containers. Some of which also be locally sourced such as fishing gear and small bits of rope used for anchors by boats which are used for fishing and for tourism of the island. 

We then treated ourselves to another open mic night on the beach which was filled with amazing local Nusa Lembongan musicians and we got up and played some acoustic tunes which went down rather well with the local crowd. The next morning we went swimming with manta rays. This has been a dream of mine for some time now as a marine biologist I have always appreciated the beauty and interactive nature that mantas have when people swim with them.

One instance had me surrounded by three Manta Rays all banking and swirling around me. The coral’s of this region had not changed since I had visited the region 5 years ago which was a moment of joy as it was something I was really not expecting to see. I thought the development and increase of tourism in the region may have affected the coral populations to a severe extent but I love being proved wrong when it come’s to the survival instincts of mother nature. 

In Total we have collected 82.07 KG of Rubbish and Marine debris. A basis way for people to assist with this problem is to minimise the consumption of plastic while on holiday in Indonesia. Simple things such as buying recyclable products like glass and aluminium as opposed to plastics and polystyrine, refusing to use straws and plastic bags will also eliminate unnecessary rubbish from being created simply so you can use the product once. 30,000,000 plastic bottles are used in Indonesia every day so if you begin to change your mind set and reduce your consumption of these products you can make a difference. 

The next location we are visiting is one that will blow our minds I cannot wait to share the next part of the journey which will land us in Rural Java, Indonesia.