The Adventure Bag started in Panama an has since spread worldwide. I organized two clean-ups in Panama, one in the Philippines and there was another Adventure Bag cleanup organized by Glimpse of Malaysia in Malaysia. This time I took the Adventure Bag movement to, Indonesia, one of my favorite countries for the first time.
The Canggu Sunrise Cleanup on Sunday, December 2nd was set to be a good one. Lots of Instagrammers, bloggers, vloggers, travelers, and locals came together for sunrise at Echo Beach. Canggu is full of progressive thinkers with a strong environmental focus present throughout the businesses and initiatives in the area. This isn’t reflected in the cleanliness of the area.
Indonesia is in the top three worst polluters of the ocean. That’s not a title you want to hold. You can’t blame the tourists, you can’t blame the locals you can blame a lack of total education and infrastructure. Those are the key components that need to be improved before there will be significant changes on the beaches. It was great to hear so many thoughtful conversations, ideas and projects being discussed throughout the clean-up about the topic.
Like I said before the event at Canggu; It’s not just about picking up trash. The Adventure Bag movement is about mobilizing creative people, about inspiring us all to get up, get going and do something incredible to help reverse this epidemic, which is plastic pollution. The simple act of filling a bag of trash may seem small, but as we all come together and show that is important more and more people are joining us and they are bringing forth ideas, projects and WE ARE shifting attitudes!
More than 70 people showed up to catch a quick sunrise (6/10) at Echo Beach before we kicked off the cleanup. A local cafe, called Hungry Bird, donated some rice sack bags and we distributed biodegradable trash bags to those who didn’t bring their own reusable bags. I am trying my best to make the clean-ups as eco-friendly as possible but it is often hard logistically when I am just a backpacker not a local. I am always doing my best to partner with locals who can help with facilities, gear, knowledge, and advice.
Eco Bali Recycle is a foundation set up to help businesses and households in Bali and recycle. There is no other recycling service available in Canggu. Ask yourself how would you recycle a week’s worth of plastics if a truck didn’t conveniently come to your house and take it away. Those are the questions we never have to answer as an Australian in 2018. This is the reality in Bali.
Eco Bali offered to have their pickup truck come and pick up our plastics and trash we collected and take it to their sorting center. Otherwise, the local truck would have picked it up and it would have been sent directly to landfill (or worse to a natural spot) to be dumped. We thank Eco Bali for generously helping out and to their volunteers!
Josh and I had a full day of transit and arrived at 1am before waking at
