On 7th of December, ROLE Foundation did a monthly beach cleanup at Sekeh beach with helping hands from all ROLE Foundation staff, Bali Wise students, Leoni Gelato as our sponsor for our beach cleanup and kids environmental classroom at Zero Waste Center, as well as other volunteers that participated in this monthly action with a total of 53 participants this month in helping by minimizing the waste that ended up in this beach. The collection started at 7 am until 9 am with a total of two hours of collecting waste, despite a brief 15 minute rain at 8.30 am, the beach clean up continued to run smoothly until the very end. With just two hours of collecting waste from Sekeh Beach, we collected a total of 616,12 kg of waste, in which we will then separate the collected waste at Zero Waste Center. After the cleanup, the beach looked a lot better than two hours before, leaving us very satisfied by the work we had done.

Location and Condition of the Beach

Sekeh Beach has its own charm like any other beach in Bali. The beach features a scenic path, ideal for walking or jogging, allowing visitors to enjoy the beach while staying active. However, because of the rainy season, the situation of this beach becomes concerning. Because there was so much trash to be seen during the cleanup, that might have come from elsewhere, carried by ocean currents, and ended up in Sekeh beach, with an increased number of one time use plastics, tree branches caught in ghost nets, etc. And a lot of visitors to the beach also contribute to the littering problem. This concern needs a collective effort from locals, tourists, and businesses to maintain the beach’s appeal and preserve its environment.

Waste collection & Separation

We collected a total of 616.15 kg of non-organic waste in only 2 hours of collecting the waste during the cleanup. The majority of the waste was residue waste with a total of 360.12 kg consisting mainly of broken materials like plastics that had already started to decompose that could not be recycled anymore. Other various wastes consist of soft plastics, hard plastics, rubber/slippers, textiles, aluminum cans, metal bottle caps, plastic lighters, and many more. This month’s cleanup with the residue waste being 58.4% is considered very high if we compare it with the cleanup from many months before.

We would like to thank Leoni Gelato, Think Ocean, and Club Ocean for their dedication to this environmental preservation. As a result, Sekeh beach ends up looking a lot better than before, and setting a lasting impact. We look forward to future collaborations with organizations that share the same mission as us to make Bali a better place.