TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Turning the tide on plastic
The resort island gains a fresh impetus in the fight against single-use plastics as the government, customary villages and the private sector make important moves.
Change Size
Beachcombers: Students from different elementary schools participate in an early-morning cleanup of Bali's most famous beach of Kuta. (JP/Zul Trio Anggono)
T
housands of Hindu devotees, who in the last few days have flocked to Uluwatu temple for a major religious festival, were greeted with a new sight: a dedicated checkpoint for single-use plastic bags.
At the checkpoint, pecalang (traditional Balinese security guards) and the temple custodians screened the devotees' belongings to ensure they were not carrying their offerings in single-use plastic bags. The officers “confiscated” the plastic bags and collected them into scores of gunny sacks.
“A large number of devotees are still using single-use use plastic bags despite the government's ongoing campaign to ban them,” devotee Ni Made Suratni said.
Prior to the start of the religious festival, the local administration, village, religious council, as well as Uluwatu temple’s custodians had issued a joint circular asking the devotees to stop wrapping or carrying their offerings in single-use plastic bags.
Uluwatu, the iconic temple perched atop a hill in southern Bali, is the latest major temple on the island to issue such a circular and establish single-use plastic bag checkpoints during religious festivals. Watu Klotok temple in Klungkung and Besakih mother temple in Karangasem as well as scores of village temples across Bali have also implemented similar measures.
At the same time, an increasing number of sekeha teruna-teruni (traditional local youth groups) have launched cleanup campaigns targeting piles of plastic trash in and around their respective villages.
