Volunteer view from waste management in kri island
I came to Soul scuba as a volunteer . As I knew from their website, one of their projects is to find solutions for the trash management. As a passionate diver it always breaks my heart to see trash in the ocean or at beautiful beaches. So I wanted to help Soul Scuba with the trash.
As you can imagine, on an island their is no proper system to deal with trash. People are used to simply pit or burn the trash, which has toxic effects on nature, animals and humans. But in Soul Scuba, people are passionate and aware of that problem. They already installed some containers to sort the trash and have great ideas to reuse some of it. We sort organic waste, metal cans, glass ware, plastic bottles, reusable things, plastic and general waste. But local people are not yet used to that system. That’s why within the last month, we rearranged and labelled the containers to make them more visible to the people. Also we put some robes with items for the different containers on top, so that people find more easily the right container. And our artist and captain Sultan draw some nice signs for our trash station. Slowly slowly, people start using them in the right way.
2022 when the borders opened in Indonesia and tourist flow became bigger, waste management became priority for Soul scuba divers. Divemaster trainees Jeremy and Manu are making waste bins from broken petrol drums and air gallons to make recycling easier for everyone.
Still that’s not enough. If you take a closer look, you’ll find some older trash areas on the island. We cleared them up by sorting the trash. That’s an ugly job, but anyway it feels satisfying to know that the trash doesn’t remain in the nature. If you think, now it’s done, there is more trash washed ashore by the sea. So we organize beach cleanups as well. You can’t believe how many Flipflops, you’ll find at the beach every single day! But the good thing is, that we can reuse them! Once they are cleaned and dry, they will be used as a sound insulation for the new generator room.
Flipflops and styrofoam is use for our generator room soundproof system. Can use to be been billed in the jungle, cans can be recycled in Waisai.
But what about the other trash, you may ask? Last time Soul Scuba brought the sorted trash to a trash station in Waisai. The disappointment was huge when they realized, that the trash went on one container to get burned. So they watched out for other solutions. We found out about BankSampah, founded by Misool Foundation that has trash station in Sorong. If you bring them the trash sorted as the propose, you also get a little refund. So far we cannot implement all their sorting system, but we will start with the ones mentioned above.
First trash run to Waisai. Disappointed we were to find out they will burn all the trash in the wasteland outside of the main town. Luckily we found other solution from Sorong Bank Sampah.
The next important step is to make people on the island more aware of the trash problem and it’s dangerous effects. For that education purpose, we prepare a presentation which informs people and explains our sorting system. We will combine this presentation with a movie night, on which we’re going to show an Indonesian documentary about trash. Let’s hope that this rises people’s awareness!
When we take people scuba diving, we visit different islands near by the dive sites. We have rice bags in the boat for beach clean ups if needed This has motivated other locals to do beach clean ups, recycle in the Kri island. Slowly slowly we are having cleaner beaches and island.
Step by Step we are educating people and have future plans to open up recycle center in Waisai !
To be continued!
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