Bali's Waste Crisis: What the Suwung Landfill Closure Means on the Ground
Bali generates roughly 3,500 tonnes of waste every day. For decades, most of it ended up at Suwung, a landfill in the island's south-east that grew to ten storeys high and served the heavily touristed regencies of Badung and Denpasar. When provincial authorities moved in April to close Suwung to organic waste, the intention was sound. The execution, by many accounts, has been chaotic.
ABC News correspondents Tim Swanston and Ari Wu, reporting from Bali, documented the fallout firsthand: illegal dump sites appearing in residential villages, rubbish piling up near Denpasar's city reservoir, and residents resorting to burning waste in the open air. Urban biologist Buya Azmedia Istiqlal told the ABC plainly: "The current condition is a crisis."
How the Crisis Unfolded
The Suwung site had been an environmental liability for years, producing large quantities of methane, leaching contaminated liquid into nearby waterways, and at one point burning for more than twenty days. Indonesia's central government had long pushed for its closure as part of a broader effort to end open-air dumping nationally.
After the April closure, residents and businesses were encouraged to manage organic waste locally, but clear guidance on how to do so was slow to arrive. In June, authorities partially reversed course, reopening Suwung to organic waste two days per week. That partial reopening has not resolved the confusion.
Gary Bencheghib, co-founder of environmental NGO Sungai Watch, told the ABC that his teams have found more rubbish scattered across the island since the closure. "There's a lot of questions as to where residents can dump their waste," he said. "A lot of people really don't know what to do."
Tourism's Role in the Equation
The numbers put the pressure in context. Foreign arrivals to Bali have nearly tripled over the past fifteen years, reaching close to seven million last year, with more than 1.5 million of those visitors coming from Australia. Domestic tourism added another nine million visitors. Tourists, the ABC report notes, generally produce significantly more waste than permanent residents.
About 65 percent of Bali's daily waste is organic and 15 percent plastic. Bencheghib traces the plastic problem to a generational shift: before plastic packaging became widespread, most household waste was biodegradable and residents disposed of it without lasting harm. The infrastructure and public awareness needed to handle non-biodegradable materials never caught up with the pace of change.
What Solutions Are in Play
A waste-to-energy facility proposed near the Suwung site is expected to divert up to 1,500 tonnes of waste per day from landfill once complete. Indonesia's environment minister estimates construction will take two to three years.
In the meantime, local NGOs and community groups are filling gaps. Griya Luhu, a recycling organisation based in Gianyar regency, runs waste-sorting programs, though development manager Ni Luh Putu Ratih Pravitha acknowledged that behavioral change takes time. Buya Azmedia Istiqlal has launched a composting business collecting organic waste from restaurants and households; he told the ABC that demand surged sharply after the Suwung closure.
Single-use plastic bans have been progressively tightened since 2019, though single-use bags remain common in markets.
Why It Matters for Hosts
Independent villa and guesthouse operators in Bali are now operating in a regulatory environment where the old assumption, that unsorted waste would simply be collected and taken to Suwung, no longer holds. Hosts who proactively set up on-site waste sorting, partner with a local composting service for organic kitchen waste, and clearly communicate recycling expectations to guests are better positioned to avoid fines, neighborhood complaints, and reputational damage. Guests increasingly notice and mention waste conditions in reviews. Getting ahead of the sorting requirement now, rather than waiting for enforcement to tighten, is the lower-risk path.
The details in this post were first reported by ABC News correspondents Tim Swanston and Ari Wu. This analysis is published by the Qontaktly travel blog for independent operators and travelers in Indonesia.
First reported by Bali Travel.