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Plastic bags to be banned in Bali
Bali's terrible pollution problem may be eased by 2018 due to the efforts of two local girls.
PT1M39S 620 349Balinese sisters Melati and Isabel Wijsen won't rest until all visitors are asked this question upon arrival at Bali's Ngurah Rai International Airport. "Welcome to Bali," the sisters chant, hands pressed together in the Balinese om swastiastu greeting gesture. "Do you have any plastic bags to declare?"
Melati and Isabel dream of a day plastic bags will be contraband in Bali. "We want people to arrive on the Island of Gods and there will be no plastic bags," Melati says. "Everyone who enters our home would know no plastic bags could be taken in or out."
It's a dream that has sustained the sisters - who founded the campaign Bye Bye Plastic Bags - for three years now. It has fuelled their quest for a million signatures, made them persevere with beach clean-ups and school presentations and even led to a modified food strike. Their remarkable journey has taken them to London, where they were invited to give a TED talk last September, and to the office of Bali governor Made Mangku Pastika, whom they now count as a friend. The sisters have inspired Bye Bye Plastic Bag campaigns all over the world. But perhaps most importantly, as Melati says in the TED talk, "along the way, we have learned kids can do things. We can make things happen".
Balinese sisters Melati and Isabel Wijsen. Photo: Made Nambi
Balinese people traditionally only used organic materials leaving no waste behind. But today paradise is lost, the tourists grumble and the resort island is swamped with rubbish. Warungs (small restaurants) serve soft drink in plastic bags to save people the hassle of returning empty bottles. Even canang sari - the daily offerings Balinese Hindus place in temples or small shrines in houses to thank the Sang Hyang Widhi Wasa - often contain plastic wrapped lollies. Much of the rubbish in Bali is not collected. Some plastic is burnt, acrid fumes choking sweaty afternoons. Some is simply dumped in rivers. "In Bali we generate 680 cubic metres of plastic a day. That's about a 14-storey building," Isabel says in the TED talk. "And when it comes to plastic bags less than five percent get recycled."
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Three years ago Melati and Isabel, then aged 10 and 12, were inspired by a class on people such as Mahatma Gandhi and Princess Di at the Green School in Bali. "We sat on the couch brainstorming - 'What can we do as kids on the island of Bali?" They knew rubbish was a big problem in Bali but it seemed insurmountable. And then they learned Rwanda banned polyethylene bags in 2008. "If one of the poorest countries does that, Bali should get on its game," Melati says. "We don't have to wait until we are older to make a difference."
Melati and Isabel formed Bye Bye Plastic Bags with their best friends. They gave talks at schools across Bali and held beach clean-up days. But it was a challenge for them to get the attention of the government. "Being kids, we thought if we get one million signatures, they cannot ignore us, they will have no choice," Melati says. But, as Isabel points out drolly in the TED talk: "Who would have guessed one million signatures is, like, a thousand times a thousand?" At first it was fun. They would go to shopping malls and events and the signatures mounted fast. But on other days they slowed to a trickle. "It was tough," says Melati and Isabel's mother, Elvira. "We calculated it would take one person seven years. They got stuck a little bit. We needed to have an idea out of the box."
Balinese sisters Melati and Isabel Wijsen. Photo: Made Nambi
That idea was the Ngurah Rai International Airport. Someone mentioned the airport handles 16 million arrivals and departures a year. Tourists were the perfect target for the petition as it's hard to escape the plastic fouling once picturesque rice fields and forests when holidaying in Bali. Remarkably, the commercial manager of the airport allowed the children to collect signatures at the departure gates behind customs - an area normally inaccessible for those without boarding passports. "He said: 'I can't believe I'm letting you do this'," Melita recalls. The access has since been revoked amid tightened airport security. But they were fun days, that helped swell the number of signatures on the petition to 100,000.
Last year a study of 192 countries led by the University of Georgia found Indonesia was the second largest source of plastic rubbish in the ocean after China. Indonesians living within 50 kilometres of the coast generated 3.22 million tonnes of mismanaged plastic waste in 2010 - 10 per cent of the world total. Twenty kilograms of plastic was found in the stomach of a giraffe at Surabaya Zoo, who died in 2012 after losing his appetite. On February 21 - National Waste Awareness Day - Indonesian retailers in some cities began charging at least 200 Rupiah (two cents) for plastic bags. Although 23 cities were slated to participate in the pilot including Jakarta and Denpasar, all but seven said they were not ready. As is often the case in Indonesia, it was a case of two steps forward one step backwards. Just days after the policy was implemented, Jakarta withdrew from the pilot. Jakarta governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja said ordering retailers to use biodegradable plastic bags was sufficie nt to reduce waste. Although some argue the equivalent of two cents is insufficient, Melati believes even a small levy will lead to behavioural change.
Every year monsoonal rains sweep rubbish onto Bali's beaches. In the past Bali's governor Made Mangku Pastika shrugged the annual event off as a "natural phenomenon". "This problem is not anyone's fault, but is due to a natural phenomenon that routinely occurs," he said a couple of years ago.
Rubbish in Kepaon, Denpasar. Photo: Amilia Rosa
For one and a half years Melati and Isabel tried to meet him. "We hand delivered letters every day," Melati says. "We said we want to make him our hero because we know he has the power to do so," Elvira adds. But in the end it was Mahatma Gandhi who was responsible for the meeting. When the Wijsen family went to India in 2014, they visited the home of Gandhi, because he had been one of the inspirations for Bye Bye Plastic Bags. "He reached his goals with hunger strikes or marches," Isabel says. "We said: 'Mum, Dad, we are going on a food strike'."
It took a lot of convincing. "School, teachers, people around the world all thought we were insane," Melati says. Eventually they reached a compromise. The girls staged what is known in Bahasa Indonesia as a mogok makan. They vowed not to eat from dawn to dusk until the Governor agreed to meet them to discuss stopping plastic bags in Bali. The food strike got a huge reaction on social media. On the first day the police came to their home. Melati said the police expected to find the campaign was being run by adults or foreigners. "Other people could have had the intention to put the governor in a bad light," Elvira says. "The girls only wanted to meet, say hello."
On the second day, Melati and Isabel were summonsed to meet the Governor. "He was really supportive towards our cause," Isabel says. "He said: 'I'm proud Indonesian youth are trying to do something about the environment'."
A soft drink served in a plastic bag. Photo: Made Nambi
Melati says she and Isabel are now on a "high five level" with the Governor. Pastika put them in touch with staff from the environment department. "It became regular for me and Bel to miss two days of school to meet the government," Melati says. "Awareness of the environment in Bali has been boiling up right now."
In March 2015, Elvira says they received a letter from the Bali provincial government environmental agency saying Bali would be plastic bag free by 2018. It was a triumphant moment. But the sisters aren't resting on their laurels. They are now working on an educational booklet, aimed at elementary school students, packed with information on how to make your own bags, waste management and pollution. "Change doesn't happen if no one is educated," Melati says.
There is a YouTube video on the internet of Isabel and Melati's meeting with the Governor of Bali. Flanked by the girls, he presses his hands together.
"Welcome to Bali," Pastika says. "Do you have any plastic bags to declare?"
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Source: Bali tourists bagged to support girls' monumental plastic rubbish goal
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