It is a little bit strange to walk around the famous Semawang Beach, Sanur on a sunny Sunday morning where not so many tourists and visitors are around. The COVID-19 global pandemic has disrupted the way we saw “normal things” previously. Yet, the pandemic situation still could not change the amount of trash that floats up on the waves or trickles down from the land at Semawang Beach Sanur.

On Feb 21st, 2021, CTC coordinated a beach clean-up as a part of the One Island One Voice campaign and to mark Indonesia’s National Day of Waste Awareness.  We collaborated with Fairmont Sanur, Sustainable Suzy, and Banjar Semawang to clean up Semawang Beach. Bali’s Biggest Clean-up this year, had 300 clean-up sites with more than 7,000 participants. This year’s clean-ups were unique. Unlike the massive island-wide events in the past years, the activity focused on individual clean-ups in small groups with strict COVID-19 protocols, where each participant had to maintain a one-meter distance at minimum from each other and wear face mask.

Starting at 7 am, with only one hour, to 8 am, we collected approximately 30 kgs of trash, composed of around 25% plastic bags, 20%  plastic bottles, 5% fishing nets, and the remaining 50% was made up of various wastes such as cans, plastic straws, cigarette butts, and styrofoam. One of the participants of the clean-up activity, the founder of Sustainable Suzy, Ibu Suzy Hutomo highlighted the importance of collaboration in the pandemic situation to acknowledge nature as a part of the strategy to rebuild Bali ahead. With her strong message, we do also hope this little contribution will help to spread awareness to reduce plastic waste as one of the ways to protect our ocean and coastal areas.

Do you want to feel the excitement of the event? Watch here now!!

Photos by: Putu Nicho/CTC and Made Nara/CTC