Clean Beach, Happy Beach - Story from ROLE Foundation

Project Stories • Feb 26, 2020

The sun strokes your face. You hear the waves in the background, and you stretch long, burying your feet in the sand … until your feet hit something odd. You sit up only to see that it is a candy wrapper buried in the sand – yuck!

Everybody would like to experience a pristine beach where the only things you find are shells or sandworms. The sad reality is that you are more likely to find yet another plastic bag while swimming in the ocean than it is for you to see the vast variety of marine life.

And even though everyone is a fan of a clean beach, this is not the only reason why the ROLE Foundation in Bali, Indonesia is organizing beach clean-ups. Their main concern is the huge impacts of the immense amounts of waste that flow in the ocean – every single day.

On 11th January 2020, it was time for another beach clean-up. Around 100 eager volunteers got together to patrol Sawagan Beach in Nusa Dua, Bali from 7.30 am to 9.30 am. Sawagan beach is frequently described as an insider tip for tourists and frequently the favorite one in Nusa Dua of the ones who find it.

The participants were a wonderful mix of Bali Wise students, an organization that empowers women in Indonesia, elementary school children, employees from local hotels, e.g. Swiss Bell Hotel and the Hilton Hotel, other volunteer organizations such as Bye Bye Plastic Bags and many many more. The organizers from ROLE Foundation were over the moon that so many like-minded people came together to join forces in their quest to clean up Sawagan Beach in Nusa Dua, Bali.

Unfortunately, the weather was not entirely on their side and the numerous volunteers were surprised by a heavy downpour. However, this was no setback for the motivated lot and they kept on going, all in the name of protecting our oceans – not even losing the smiles on their faces.

And they can all be proud of themselves. They have collected over 182kg of non-organic waste – waste that would have landed in the ocean otherwise, threatening the so precious marine life.

They sure deserved their refreshments afterward.

When they examined the waste later, they realized that the majority of the waste was soft plastics such as crisps bags or candy wrappers. ROLE Foundation understood and also plans to focus even more on educating the local communities in 2020 as most of the participants were school children and locals who were unaware of the importance of a beach clean-up and the impact plastic has on the environment.