Plastic Island: Bali

From time to time I read the letters section in the Indonesian newspapers, and, some of these make common sense and have valued arguments whether they be politically orientated or of an environmental nature.

There was a time when Bali was plastics-free but that was before the tourism onslaught. Now, we can see plastic bags floating in the already polluted rivers, stuffed in places along Jalan Legian and even on the sides of road when you travel upcountry.

An expat by the name of Jim Taylor wrote an excellent letter to the Jakarta Post yesterday complaining about the situation:

Rid Bali of plastic trash

I observed a group of school kids, maybe a hundred or so, on a school outing to a famous temple here in Bali. As they filed out of the temple they were each given a plastic water container — the kind that comes with a little straw. A half hour later there were a hundred little plastic glasses on the street in front to the temple.

I also observed a couple driving a motorcycle, the man driving, the woman in back. They crossed a small bridge over a river and the woman threw a plastic bag of trash over the railing into the river.

A woman came out of the front door of her home and dumped a pail of plastic trash into the small irrigation ditch at the side of the road in front of her house.

The natives of Bali are desecrating this extraordinarily beautiful island. They like to blame the West for inventing plastic bags and bottles. This fact is true. The West also developed arsenic and cyanide, which evidently means that the Balinese should drink these poisonous chemicals.

I know that for a thousand years the Balinese have had only to reach out to pick their food, fiber and shelter from the trees, and that they could throw these items away with impunity, as everything was biodegradable.

Now it is time for the people of Bali to wake up and start collecting their plastic for the recycling bin. Rotary Club has raised many tens of thousands of dollars from around the world to develop a recycling center in Gianyar, under the able and dedicated leadership of David Kuper. Let all of us who love Bali “pitch in” and clean up the streets and byways of paradise.

JIM TAYLOR
Ubud, Bali