Bali Proposes a Tourist Tax to Clean Up Plastic Pollution

plastic-pollution-beach-bali
Plastic pollution, Kuta beach, Bali. Photograph: © SAF — Coastal Care
Between 4.8 million tonnes and 12.7 million tonnes of plastic waste enter the ocean every year, 80 percent of it from land sources due to inadequate waste management. According to the Worldwatch Institute, plastic production is increasing 4-5 percent annually.

Excerpts;

Bali is considering taxing foreign tourists to tackle the Indonesian island’s mounting plastic pollution problem. Bali receives about 6 million visitors annually, mostly from China and Australia.

As Bali’s tourist industry has grown in recent decades, the island has struggled to create an effective waste management plan…

Read Full Article; Yale E360 (01-25-2019)

Plastic, plastic, plastic’: British diver films sea of rubbish off Bali; Guardian UK (03-06-2018)

Microplastics pollute most remote and uncharted areas of the ocean; Guardian UK (02-12-2018)
First data ever gathered from extremely remote area of the South Indian Ocean has a surprisingly high volume of plastic particles, say scientists. Currently scientists can only account for 1% of the plastic they think is in the ocean…

More plastic than fish in the sea by 2050, Guardian UK (01-19-2016)
One refuse truck’s-worth of plastic is dumped into the sea every minute, and the situation is getting worse, according to a new report launched at the World Economic Forum today. New plastics will consume 20% of all oil production within 35 years, up from an estimated 5% today…

Plastic Pollution: When The Mermaids Cry, The Great Plastic Tide, Coastal Care
Washed out on our coasts in obvious and clearly visible form, the plastic pollution spectacle blatantly unveiling on our beaches is only the prelude of the greater story that unfolded further away in the world’s oceans, yet mostly originating from where we stand: the land…

UN Declares War on Ocean Plastic, UNEP (02-23-2017)

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