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The story of “Bali River Warriors”

The Indonesian island of Bali is a magnet for tourists, but in recent years has been flooded with plastic waste. Together with local communities, the environmental protection organization Sungai Watch founded by Gary Benchegib is cleaning mountains of plastic waste from Bali’s rivers. Founded in 2019, the organization now has 55 full-time employees and lots of local volunteers.

Sungai Watch co-founder Gary Bencheghib said: “We started this initiative 11 years ago to clean up beaches in Bali, we found that 90% of the plastic waste that ends up in the ocean is coming from rivers. At that time there were no initiatives to help protect rivers in Bali.”

To collect garbage in the rivers, the warriors used floating buoys to block garbage. A total of 20 units have been installed in the past two years across Bali, during which time they have collected nearly 400 thousand kilograms of trash from rivers and streams. Garbage will then be sorted, some of which will be sold, others will be recycled.

Story of Bali River Warriors - Photo 1.

“Some of the more permanent solutions we’re looking for are whether we can recycle this waste, such as bottles or bottle caps, or straws, into useful items, such as bricks. We are conducting research and testing to see what will be the best solution,” said Gary Bencheghib.

In addition, they also catalog plastic waste, such as where the waste comes from, including what and by which brand. More than half of plastic waste comes from big brands, including domestic businesses and global corporations.

Indonesia currently ranks second in the world in terms of the amount of plastic waste discharged into the ocean, which is putting pressure on the Government to act. The Jakarta government is increasingly financially supporting environmental initiatives like Sungai Watch’s, with the hope that 70% of the country’s waste can be properly disposed of by 2025.

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