Bali travellers horrified by items washed up on beaches
Aussie traveller, Kirsty Grist shared pictures of rubbish washed ashore on Legian and Kuta beaches on the Bali Bogans Facebook page.
The pictures included bags of medical waste that she had collected which included syringes.
'Hey everyone, if you are in this area, especially with little ones, please be careful. There is a heap of medical waste washed up on the beach. We have picked up 2 bags worth of syringes … some with needle ends, some without,' she wrote.
The post was flooded with comments from fellow travellers, many agreeing that the waste that washes up on Bali's beaches is very unpleasant. Aussie traveller, Kirsty Grist shared pictures of rubbish washed ashore on Legian and Kuta beaches Credit: Facebook
'Yuck. That's disgusting,' one person said.
'We picked a big one up off the beach the other week at Bloo Lagoon, the needle was huge,' another commented.
However, others claimed that not all of the syringes were necessarily medical waste and didn't believe the scenes that Grist had captured were real. Kirsty Grist claimed to pick up two bags of syringes from Bali's beaches. Credit: Facebook
'Yeah it was here on beach in Seminyak last night too. Some are alcohol shots (usually larger ones) but some are the real deal. Be careful folks,' someone commented.
'Never seen it, been going to Kuta and Legian for 40 years. Absolute bulls**t,' another said.
Regardless of the severity of the latest claims, the pictures expose the ugly truth behind the much-loved Indonesian island.
Indonesia is second in the world only to China in terms of its contribution to marine plastic pollution due to poor plastic waste management, according to Bali.com.
The worst tides of plastic washing ashore Bali's beaches usually happens during the wet season of October to March.
Last Christmas, Bali awoke to a monumental tide of plastic on Jimbaran Beach on December 24; Charity, Sungi Watch, had to call on volunteers for an emergency cleanup event in early January 2025.
'A massive 66,000kg of trash was collected by volunteers between over the Christmas holiday period in 2024,' said the not-for-profit.
The waste isn't just from the unregulated rubbish which is deposited in the waters around Bali by shipping vessels, it's added to by the island's open landfills . As they become fuller, they put pressure on local waste management operations.
Rubbish is then spilt into waterways and dumped in unofficial landfill sites, often on the edges of some of Bali's most beautiful natural landscapes.
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