Multi disciplinairy Project - Pantai Project Bali
Sanne, Ervan, Gijs, Josephine, Hendrikus and Anthonie are six civil engineering master students. From February till the end of March 2020 they went to Bali to research why Bali became not only a tropical paradise but also a plastic paradise.
They discovered that Bali uses a decentralized waste system in which every village and sometimes even every neighborhood is responsible for their own waste handling. This results in neighborhoods with a garbage truck and once without. As a result, waste handling is largely depending on the participation of the households themselves. Therefore, their research focused on the societal aspects of the plastic waste problem in Bali. They investigated the trade-offs (attitudes) households make between plastic pollution and cost for the waste management system. Subsequently they linked these trade-offs to an environmental model, which enabled them to analyze the impact of these attitudes on the environment.
With the help of the grant it was possible to fly to Bali and survey the local people and understand the local customs. In total they surveyed 300 people and interviewed another three experts on solid waste handling in Bali. Furthermore, they participated in beach clean-ups. They found that the local people are very willing to pay for a better waste management system and thus lower plastic pollution in the river but are not eager to participate in the clean-ups. Recommendations were made to the government of the study area of the research to improve the system. In the end this could help to reduce the plastic waste on the beaches of Bali.
