On Monday 9 August 2021, R.O.L.E Foundation held a cleanup activity in Sawangan village. We chose this as an alternative to the monthly beach cleanup to respect the PPKM regulations. The team consisted of 23 participants, being 15 Bali WISE students and 8 staff members. The team collected 18.985 kg of non organic waste.

The Village Condition

The cleanup activity started at 08.30am with a duration of 1.5 hours. The participants cleaned a radius of 1km around the village. The weather conditions were good, but the collected waste was not as much compared to the beach cleanups we usually do. Part of the reason was that some areas are privately owned and thus inaccessible.

Waste Separation

The collected waste was weighed and separated by type of waste, and then further analyzed . This waste sorting activity is carried out by Bali Wise students under the supervision of our environment educator. In total, we collected 14 types of non-organic waste. The majority of the waste was glass (37.9%) and other types of plastic waste (30.9%). Other types of plastic are all plastics that can no longer be identified.  

Why a Village Clean-up, and Not a Beach Clean-up?

We chose to do a cleanup in Sawangan Village, which is near to the ZeroWaste Center, as an alternative to the monthly beach cleanup to respect the PPKM regulations. The current pandemic situation doesn’t allow group activities in public areas. With this small group, the participants could maintain distance and still perform a cleanup. The streets in Sawangan Village are now cleaner and the village community members that saw us appreciated our initiative. As we strive to include local community members in our activities to grow awareness about the environment, we hope to include them in future cleanups.