On Tuesday, June 8, 2021, IDEP attended the invitation to launch balipartnership.org organized by the Postgraduate Program of Udayana University. The activity was held offline at the Udayana University Auditorium with a limited capacity. balipartnership.org is a website that has a tool for disseminating data related to waste distribution in Bali including stakeholders who play a role in the issue of waste problems on the island of Bali.
IDEP support balipartnership.org because this website can be one of the crucial breakthroughs in waste management system base on data. The openness and ease of access to the information presented can help the community and stakeholders determine strategic and collaborative steps in overcoming the waste problems.
The Postgraduate Program of Udayana University through funding from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in collaboration with Systemiq has implemented a project aimed at dealing with waste in Bali since 2018. Balipartnership.org is one of the main outputs of the program. The priority aspect is provided in the tools that available on the balipartnership.org link in the monitoring of waste and rivers.
In his remarks, the Norwegian Ambassador, Vegaard Kaale conveyed the support of the Norwegian government for the strong commitment of the Indonesian government in overcoming the problem of waste, especially plastic waste. As President Jokowi’s commit, Indonesia will overcome the problem of marine debris, especially reducing plastic waste by 70% by 2025. Ambassador Veegard Kaale also expressed his appreciation for the innovation in balipartnership.org which is not only a tool based on scientific data but is also able to provide projections on waste sources and related stakeholders in Bali.
The waste problem is an important variable in the management of tourism in Bali, the Director of Bali Waste Management, Novrizal Tahar, said in his opening. Through the mapping presented in balipartnership.org, it is hoped that it can support the government and business actors as well as other stakeholders on the real conditions of the waste problem and make it easier to implement interventions and determine priorities. So that at least Bali can take the lead in the national waste management system which recently uses an integrated system. He also emphasized the importance of taking action, so that the use of the data can become a reality, not just a utopia.
Best Practices and Research Results to Solve Waste Problems in Bali
The launch activity also provided dissemination of the results of activities and research from several activists and academics who have become part of the best practice in terms of waste management. Ida Bagus Mandhara Brasika, initiated Griya Luhu, a Waste Bank facilitated by information technology through an android application. The application can help collect waste data and distribution of waste processing posts. Another activist, the Kemitraan Bali Resik (KBR), represented by Ni Made Widiasari, conveyed that KBR’s activities became a multi-stakeholder forum in reviewing waste problems in Bali. KBR carries out advocacy activities for community behavioural change campaigns and is also a member of the Bergerak menuju Indonesia Bebas Sampah (BIBS), national forum.
Lincoln Sihontang and Nicolas Loncle gave presentations on the data aspects of the balipartnership.org tool and the mapping presented. From the results of data collection that has been carried out, it can display 2 types of data, data on leakage of plastic waste and data on unmanaged waste. The Balipartnership.org tool can also show a map of the condition of watersheds on the island of Bali so that they can make an analysis of areas that have the potential to release waste into the sea. In addition, this tool also shows stakeholders such as TPA (final waste disposal site/landfills), organizations engaged in research and behaviour change related to waste problems, landfills at the district level, and government agencies in charge. Nicolas Loncle shares that the interactive maps available on Balipartnership.org are all research results that have been tested, proven quality, presented in the form of spatial data. So that all users and stakeholders can explore research results without having to read all research results.
Academic Research to Support Solutions to Plastic Waste Problems
Other academics include in this launching event are Dr Costas Velis, who is part of the Marine Litter Task Force, and I Gede Hendrawan, PhD as a representative of the Centre for Remote Sensing & Ocean Science. In his dissemination, Dr Costas Velis conveyed the results of the research that had been carried out by his team and the output in the form of the Plastic Pollution Calculator (PPC). The PPC can provide basic data and references in measuring, determining the source and area of plastic waste. Through PPC, a more complete picture of plastic waste can be analysed, including environmental factors such as the number of tourists, wind speed, leakage, activities/festivals, and others. This is because PPC considers in depth the socio-economic aspects of the problem of plastic waste in particular.
Estimation of leakage of plastic waste into the sea is one of the studies carried out by I Gede Hendrawan, Ph.D. In his dissemination, he said that the research carried out identified microplastic in all coastal areas of Bali and surveyed the characteristics of behaviour and household waste. The results of this study indicate that 50% of households use 1 – 2 plastic bags per day with 41% of the total plastic waste not being managed properly (burned/littered). Meanwhile, the effectiveness of the waste transportation collection system is still not effective because only 59% stated that waste transportation is good. Meanwhile, the amount of plastic waste on the coast was identified as 3.9 tons/km2, 20.7 tons/km2 of plastic waste found in rivers, and 2.1 tons/km2 on land. This shows that there is still a need for improvement in the reduction and management of plastic waste or waste as a whole in Bali.
From the launch activity, IDEP Foundation as one of the organizations that supports better waste management in Bali is aware of the importance of conducting interventions that can support solutions to the waste problem. One of the efforts that IDEP can suggest in daily activities is to apply the concept of Permaculture in everyday life. Permaculture specifically emphasizes the integration between various aspects of the household, including household waste management. Moreover, in stringent aspects, the practice of Permaculture can help households to become zero waste. Basic materials related to permaculture at the household level can be accessed for free at the following link: bit.ly/IdepGarden. (Fhn, Da)
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