Bali is a the best example for a love hate relationship. On the one side the jungles, waterfalls and stunning sunsets are overwhelming. On the other side the plastic waste is incredible high and the lack of knowledge about this topic leads to very polluted coasts. Birds and especially marine life suffers a lot through this terrible amount of plastic waste in the beautiful sea. Plastic bottles, packages and recently also countless covid masks get either blown from the land to the sea or especially in rain season the huge amount of water flush the waste into the sea.

Its common in Bali that after huge rainfalls its not recommended to go in the water because the amount of bacteria which are flushed from the land is too high which often causes ear infections. Of course this kind of pollution does create the effect of bioaccumulation. Bioaccumulation describes the enrichment of pollutants within the food chain, for example starting with algae which enriches pollutants out of the water while growing. These algae will be eaten by small fishes where the amount of pollutants increase and these fish get eaten by larger animals in turn and the process repeats again. The pollutant concentration can be after a while 100.000x stronger then it was in the water before.

For long term i am planning to go more frequently to Bali and support coastal cleanups and startups which stand for sustainability. Also a main goal is to spread the awareness of recycling more plastic and to reuse it properly.