Mertasari beach looks so clean as far as the eye can reach but do you believe in just one hour, we collected up to 80 kilos of waste? Surprisingly yes! Garbage of all kinds was found along the beach, such as plastic caps, wires, straw, candy wrappers, bottles, cutleries, and even mattress. Plastic bags were expected to be the most waste collected during beach clean-up. But at that moment, we got a vast of cigarette filters waste that scatter around the beach, till we couldn’t count it. It was estimated that the trash came from local visitors who are usually spending time with their partners in the beach.

This was our first time we conducted beach clean-up under I AM NOT PLASTIC campaign on October 4th, 2017 at Mertasari Beach, Bali. Additional help in the cleanup came from non-profit organization Malu Dong, students from SMPN 3, and teachers of Australia International School. During the activity, volunteers were excited to keep plastics out of the marine environment. All of us becoming aware of our lifestyle to understand the impact of consumerism and the consequences of accumulated plastic in the beach.

Lastly, we feel glad to hold this activity with no plastic at all. We provided reusable hand gloves, our trash bags made from cassava starch, water, and snacks. Many volunteers have brought their reusable water bottles, and for the others who didn’t bring it, we provided our PLA cups made from cornstarch that 100% compostable. Because we believe that any event held on the beach shouldn’t be handing out any plastic!