Wasting Away in Bali

A few weeks ago I was reading an article in the New York Times about the growing issue of waste in another leading Asian resort destination Bali. It struck a chord with me at a time when we are seeing a growing groundswell of awareness of green issues starting with the recent Summer in Phuket island wide beach clean up. Getting to the root of the problem makes so much sense as sustainability of these campaigns and trying to solve garbage disposal before it hits the beach in the first place.
Two non profit organizations in Bali have been set up with Bali Fokus who offer a low cost village based way of working and a more sophisticated Navigat Organic Energy who look at more mass solutions with landfill anaerobic digestion and gasification. Even back of these two pioneering efforts trash in Bali's booming tourism driven economy are continuing to mount up.
There look to be lessons learned from what is happening in Bali and these two models both have merits and could work well in Phuket. Cause and effect aside, greater attention needs to be put into getting local government and residents involved and looking at introducing education into the schools so that future generations can work towards what is no doubt one of the biggest challenges facing the fragile environment of the island.