Yes, it’s really going to happen. Ubud is finally cleaning up its act.
For a long time there have been rumours that the Rotary Club was working on a waste management project that would clean up Bali’s artistic centre for good while creating a model for other Balinese communities. After two years of careful planning and intense fund-raising, the project will soon become a reality.
Garbage will be collected from every household and business in Ubud and several surrounding villages. It will immediately be trucked to a waste separation facility where it will be sorted into saleable components - plastic, paper, metal, glass and pig fodder. These will be delivered to buyers within 8 hours of sorting. Organic waste such as garden cuttings and old offerings will be composted on the site for later resale. The approximately 30% of the waste that can’t be recycled or composted - the real garbage - will be taken to a new controlled landfill.
The Solid Waste Collection and Recovery for Ubud Project, to give the initiative its formal name, is modelled on a successful and profitable recovery facility in Jimbaran. Four years ago, Jimbaran Listari began collecting and recycling solid waste from 14 hotels and the airport catering centre. It quickly became a profitable business and now employs 60 people. Jimbaran Listari has demonstrated that this kind of enterprise, when well-run, is neither polluting nor in any way offensive to the community in which it is located.
The project has leased thirty are of land near Ubud on a 20 year contract, and construction of an integrated waste separation and sludge treatment facility begins later this month. Over 50 large garbage bins have been ordered for the streets of Ubud. Two-wheeled carts have been specially designed to enter the town’s narrow alleyways for household collection.
The Waste Recovery Facility itself will be a model of sound environmental management, using renewable alternative energy from biogas produced on site. Wastewater gardens will filter into a fish pond. A garden will supply fruit and vegetables to the site canteen on plots fertilized with compost. A small Environmental Theme Park is being planned as part of the site, to include hands-on experiences and practical solutions as well as evolving alternative technologies like photovoltaic energy. The Park will be a teaching tool for local schools and banjars.
Recently the project was promised funding for a sludge treatment facility as part of the waste recovery centre which will have the capacity to process all the sludge from Ubud’s septic tanks. Currently, much of this sludge is dumped on fields and into rivers. Since an estimated 60% of all diseases in Bali are caused by polluted drinking water, this is a major step forward. Composted sludge residues will be sold as garden compost. Yes, it’s odourless and microbe-free.
How is this sustainable? Collection fees from hotels, businesses and households will cover costs, with household collection fees set at a very manageable Rp 3,000 a month. Sale of plastic, paper, cardboard, glass and metal to recyclers, pig fodder to farmers and compost to hotels and gardeners generates the profit.
Ubud has a high profile in Bali, Indonesia and the world. Once the project is launched, many eyes will be us. If the project is a success and as profitable as planned, hopefully other towns will want to emulate it. The beauty of this project is that it’s been meticulously planned and documented in order to be easily replicated in other communities.
The project will provide all the infrastructure necessary to establish a sustainable and profitable business collecting and recycling Ubud’s waste. But it can only be effective if the people of Ubud make it so. It may take years to change people’s habits, but we must begin. The project is planning a broad-based awareness and education campaign to begin in the fall. A program is now being designed which will be delivered through Ubud’s 20 schools and banjars and to the general public.
Local people are pleased with the initiative. "A few years ago no one talked about garbage or worried about it, but now we know it’s a big problem," says Made, from the village of Sakti Bentuwang near Ubud. "I’m ashamed when I see tourists looking at the piles of garbage in Ubud, and taking pictures of the riverbanks covered in plastic. The Balinese are actually very clean people."
"We have more garbage now but fewer places to put it. Until two years ago there were several big containers around Ubud where we could bring our garbage. But they rusted out and were never replaced. There used to be commercials on TV telling us to burn the garbage. Now they tell us not to burn it because the fumes cause cancer, but they don’t tell us what to do with it instead. When there’s a big ceremony everyone brings money for belanja and buys food from the warung, but there’s no place to put the garbage later."
Kudos to the Rotary Club of Bali Ubud for this flagship project, which has absorbed hundreds of hours of planning by dedicated members and most of the Club’s financial assets. Kudos, too, to the overseas readers of Bali Advertiser who have already made private contributions.
At time of going to press, major donors to the project include the government of Switzerland, USAid, BORDA (Germany) and a matching grant from Rotary Hamburg-Harburg. The Bali government has pledged two trucks. A total of $135,800 has been collected to date, but a further $93,000 is needed to complete the Waste Project and create the Environmental Theme Park.
Many of us have been saying for years that we’d support any project that addressed Bali’s waste problems. Here’s a wonderful opportunity to do so. The Rotary Club of Ubud Bali will soon launch a fund-raising campaign which will culminate in a gala event at the Four Seasons Hotel Sayan in November. If you’re approached for sponsorship, think about what a permanent difference this will make to your environment, and get out your cheque book. Or step forward before you’re asked, and make a meaningful contribution to the community which could, in time, filter across much of Bali.
For more information about the project, including full documentation and budget breakdown, please contact info@rotaryubud.com
