The volunteers included local residents, representatives of the Lombok Environment and Forestry Agency, local NGOs as well as employees of major hotels like the Sheraton Resort, restaurants and minimarkets chains such as Indomaret.

They joined forces to clean up Senggigi beach as well as several kilometers of road stretching from Senggigi to Batu Layar.

The wide extent of the sites allowed the volunteers to avoid crowding together, all while cleaning their hands regularly using sanitizer and wearing face masks, according to Lombok Ocean Care leader Christine Sakinah Nauderer.

“Then, when we had to go into the water to collect the trash, we switched to snorkelling masks. The COVID-19 pandemic has raised people’s awareness about the importance of maintaining a clean environment,” Nauderer told The Jakarta Post recently over the phone.

She and a few friends established Lombok Ocean Care in 2019 after the devastating Lombok earthquake as part of an effort to inspire locals to rebuild the island's tourism by keeping it clean. The COVID-19 pandemic's adverse impacts on local tourism has made the cause more important than ever.

The organization works closely with the Lombok environment and forestry and tourism agencies, which regularly send new civil servants to join its beach cleaning activities to learn about waste management. The organization also educates young children about waste management.

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