Why Is Plastic Burning on Beaches? The Shocking Truth

They're literally eating all bits and pieces of plastic in this area. Today, I am on one of the most heavily polluted coastlines that I have ever seen. Guys, I'm in a town called Munchar, just outside of Bali, and this entire coastline is loaded with plastic. So unfortunately, this is the reality of coastlines all around the world that have this much plastic. If you see behind me, every single wave is bringing more and more plastic onto the shoreline. And I was talking to one of the locals, and they had mentioned that all these houses, everything leading up to this, they all used to have waste management infrastructure. So they had someone, almost like a garbage man, that would come, you know, a few times a week and pick up their trash. Those services stopped a while ago, and now there is plastic that is continually dumped on this coastline, as well as washing up. And what you'll see behind me is actually a smoldering fire. Not long ago, this thing was just an open fire pit where people were burning their plastic. While we were sitting here, that fresh, clean pile of plastic, you know, a woman came out, and she just dumped all of her stuff right here onto the beach. And unfortunately, this is due to a lack of waste management infrastructure. This is massive, massive amounts of single-use plastic. If you look at the different items, you've got coffee, there's dish detergent, you've got noodles. It's all single-use plastic that's consumed for a few minutes, and then it's tossed out. And that's what's happening on these coastlines, is people are consuming very large amounts of plastic, and it's ending up here. And this is a stark reminder that cleaning the ocean alone is not going to solve the ocean plastic crisis. We've got to find a way to implement waste management infrastructure, cut down on the amount of plastic materials that are being consumed, produced, and ending up on these coastlines. And I'm honestly getting, like, nauseous. This is, like, behind me, that's just literally smoldering plastic. Like, the smell is so pungent of just burning chemicals. So this is that smoldering fire. This is all that plastic and debris that was in a pile that was just on fire earlier. And what's crazy to think, I mean, this is just plastic burning right now. And what's crazy to think is you've got all these chickens, all these animals behind me here that, my God, it's so strong, that are all picking through and eating this plastic debris. And the crazy thing is, most likely, I think these chickens are going to end up being eaten. So when you think about these chickens eating some of this small plastic debris, some of this other stuff... Oh, I got to get away from this. It's crazy to think, because the amount of plastic that's being ingested is wild. And behind me, these are all local homes. You know, this is everybody's backyard. And what would you do if this was your backyard? How would you handle that? You know, the lack of waste management infrastructure, massive amounts of plastic being consumed. This is what's ending up on the coastlines every single day. I've seen some trash before, but this is just, it's like heart-wrenching. If you actually feel it, you picture like, you know, your family members living in conditions like this. Just the daily habits that they're so accustomed to that a lot of the population takes, you know, for granted, back home in America, especially. But yeah, like you said, people coming out here, dumping their trash right onto the beach, burning it, local animals, cats and chickens, just eating scraps and remains. Yeah. The fumes, like, it's just like, it's apocalyptic. It's insane. You know, that's one of the things that we talk about a lot, is that we're very fortunate here in the United States to have waste management infrastructure. We have people that pick up our trash, and it goes, quote unquote, away, right? In these different areas, developing countries, they don't have that waste management infrastructure. The plastic is ending up on the coastlines, it's ending up in the ocean. They have nothing to do with it, and they're consuming such large volumes. You know, all of these plastic bags, food containers, all this material is used for a few minutes and ended up tossed away, and they have no outlet for it. So they're trying to do whatever they can to get rid of it. You know, they're consuming the materials, and they've got to find a way to get rid of the materials. And unfortunately, the ocean, rivers, and coastlines, just like this, are the outlet. Good to see you again, buddy. Yeah. We meet again, my man. We meet again. We're back at it. Brother in arms. Man, you got perfume, you got so much stuff. This is so wild. Like, this is so crazy. The amount of plastic that's here is like, I just, I struggle to comprehend it. This is insane, dude. Oh my god, look at this, as I just dig. What? Oh, dude, every new... God, that's crazy. Wow. It's literally just mounds of plastic. My gosh. Yeah, a lot of bags, a lot of, you know, thin film, there's some nets, clothing, but a ton of these little silly packets. Lots of these. Dirty diapers, food containers. It's all sorts of stuff. I think we're going to be here for a very long time. We were just talking about that, Tony and I. You know, what would we do here? We'd have to come back and clean this beach every day. I think it's doable, though. Like, if you look behind me down at the end, it starts to clear up, and it's not as bad. So this is a pretty polluted area. I feel like we could clean this in probably a few weeks, you know, if we stayed on it consistently. We could probably get this clean. It's a little bit easier than the previous Tracha speech that we did, just because, like, if you look, it's, there's definitely layers of plastic. Like, if you sit here and dig, like, if I start just digging, there's definitely a bunch of layers and layers of plastic under this. But you start to get to sand. See, like, I'm to sand there. So, like, you know, it's manageable. Still heavy, still crazy, but it's manageable in comparison. We just got to stay on it. That's the thing. So, Ranga, can you give me the download? What was he just saying? He is, like, coming originally, come from this place for, and he is, like, 45 years. Yep. And then I was asking about, why are you helping? And he said that, because this is the way that I go to work. Like, I can't move my scooter. Yeah. Yeah, and also my carriage if I don't, like, clean the way. And sometimes when the trash is, like, a lot, they use the, how do you? The rake? A rake. Ah, yes, a rake to make the way. Got it. Yeah. And he also mentioned that in the past, like, when he was a child, he used to play football, soccer. On this beach. Without using a boat, without using, like, sandals. Just barefoot. Yeah. That's okay. But now, a lot of trash. Never, you know. So he grew up here. So this is his, this is his car. I saw him delivering ice earlier. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So he delivers ice to the fishermen. Yes, so he was a fisherman, but now he's just, like, delivering ice, helping him to take the fish, like, from the boat to the shore. So that's what he does. And also, I asked about what is your hope? I hope that the oceans, like, be cleaner because it's not only for me. The benefit is not only for me, but also, like, for people who are traveling to the beach, for fishermen, like, for the locals. But now I see, like, it's worse. It's so different than the day, like, when I was a child. So he grew up on this beach. He was able to play soccer barefoot. Yeah. Beautiful, clean beach, right? Yeah. And over the years, you've just seen it getting worse and worse. Yes, worse and worse. Crazy. And also, he mentioned that we have a river over there. And we also, Pangpang River and Bagu River over there. And it is like a bay. Yeah. So every, like, every trash is coming. All the trash is coming out of the rivers and then coming onshore. Yeah. So many, like, trash are not originally coming from this place and it ended up here. So, like, the local, like, they can't do it alone. You know, it keeps coming, keeps coming. 100%. Yeah. That's so crazy. And that's, like, that's the story for so many locals here in Indonesia and all around the world is that, you know, I can't say how many people have heard that same exact story. Like, you know, I grew up here. As a kid, there was never any plastic. There was never any materials. I mean, you heard him when he said he used to play soccer on this beach barefoot and have a great time. Now he would never think of that. And that's, it's so unfortunate because we hear that all the time. You know, there's so many people that are affected and even what Renger was just saying is that they try and clean it up but because of the rivers, because of everything else, it's just constantly coming onshore. So they can't even, they can't even manage it. It's a very difficult thing and it's very complex but people think it's easy. It's like, well, why don't they just clean it up? Why don't you just clean up the backyard? But unfortunately, the amount of plastic continues to come onshore every single day. They just can't manage it. And this isn't even the rainy season. During rainy season, when all that plastic is being taken offshore out of the rivers, that's when it gets really, really gnarly. So, you know, I continue to talk about it that we've got to help implement waste management infrastructure. We've got to redesign these materials. We've got to continue to raise awareness. Like what we're doing right now, filming this video, showing you exactly what's happening here. Hopefully, this will start to move the needle. This will start to generate that snowball effect. And I do believe that consumers, we all have the power to vote with our dollar and vote with our purchasing decisions and what we talk about on social media, what we talk about in daily conversations. And, you know, if we can continue to drive awareness about this problem that we're seeing out here in all these different countries, and hopefully we will generate enough momentum and enough awareness so that governments, brands, corporations, everybody's going to be more receptive to changing the packaging. I mean, if you look at all of its single use, it's all single individual packets of laundry detergent, coffee pods, just all sorts of stuff. And it just keeps washing up on the coastlines. It's a sight to see, honestly, it's sad. And now here we go. Here we got goats. Look at these goats. These goats are literally eating in the plastic. And most likely, the chickens, the goats, all these animals are going to end up being consumed. And they're literally eating all bits and pieces of plastic in this area. How you doing, guys? Good? Good. Nice first one, man. This is the first time we survey a location. Survey the location? Survey location when we start to open the Borosan Banuang, Borosan Jaffa. Oh, OK. So you're saying when you first came here to look at locations, this is where you saw? I saw with Johan, with Imran. Yeah. With Andy. OK, here. Wow. And what, and what, how often do we clean this location? A week. Once a week? Once a week. OK. Before, it's more than... Oh, there was more plastic than this? Johan have photo. Photos of it more? Wow. I feel like it's doable, though. I feel like we could clean this. We could get it clean. Can we keep it clean? I don't know. That might be hard. Yeah. Yeah, we clean and we must educate the locals. Yeah, we were sitting right over here. And while we were watching it, a woman just came out with her whole trash bag and just dumped all of it on the beach. Yeah. It's downpouring rain right now. We got all of our Super Saks pulled off of the beach. We stacked them up over here. We're gonna, we're gonna give it a little bit. Actually ran into a couple of local legends here. The team from Sungai Watch. So Gary and Sam are, we just had a chance to connect with them. They're actually doing a cleanup. Ironically enough, they're doing a cleanup on the same exact beach. So super, super cool to be able to see them, meet them. You know, cool spot to meet them. I think one of the most impactful spots to meet them. But we're gonna take a quick break. We're gonna have some lunch. And, you know, the team's hanging out. They're staying dry. But this is what we got here in the past. You know, a little quick cleanup. The rain has stopped and we had a little snack. A little bit, a little bit of lunch. Maybe not lunch. I'll call it a, just a snack. But we're gonna, we're gonna get back after it now. We got the team already down here. Making some moves, trying to clean up some plastic. We got Sungai Watch on the opposite side. Two impactful groups cleaning the beach, cleaning the ocean. Unite as one. Yeah, it's super cool. It's really cool that we all meet up here. And it was honestly unplanned. We didn't even know they were gonna be here, which is pretty sick. So we're gonna be getting this area clean. We're gonna spend some more time, fill up some more super sacks. And, uh, and then break for lunch after this around, I don't know, 11 noon. So, let's go. The yellow, fish oil? I don't know. You can see how hard it is. I'm sorry, guys. I'm sorry. I don't mean to do this to you. Hey, so, so this, this is, uh, fish. Yes. Yeah. All right. So that's a good update. I just realized I thought all this was just like, uh, decaying rice bags or, you know, just plastic that had kind of separated. But all of this is fish scales. It's all super gnarly fish scales and fish guts. So that makes it a little, a little spicy. Energy? So you do know that all this, it's all fish scales. What do you mean? All this is fish guts and fish scales. That explains why it smells the way it does. I thought it was like just decomposing bags, but it's, it's fish scales, dude. I mean, that checks out. Yeah. For all I know, they're having me say some absolutely foul stuff, little menaces. It's crazy. You can see everybody, all the kids are not wearing shoes. So they're running around with needles, trash, everything. It's insane. We got to get back to cleaning. What do you say Pietra? Looking good? Good. Good? My man. Boom. My guy. We've got a lot of this plastic cleaned up this coastline behind us. I know behind me, it's terrible, but check this out. It's a little bit of a W, all right? I know it's a small step. I know we're not done. I know there's still so much to be done, but hey, at least this looks pretty good compared, right? Comparatively. Well, before and after, but it looks a lot better than it did. I can tell you that. And we're going to keep grinding, but we're coming up on lunch here shortly. And the whole team is just collecting the bags. We're going to bring them back up to the van and get them finalized. But we're making some moves. What do you say, guys? Looking good? Good? All right. Hell yeah. All right. We've got all of our super sacks filled. It's time for lunch. We've been at it since about 5 30 in the morning. We're going to bring all of these super sacks back to our facility. There we're going to sort, weigh, document, and get everything ready for recycling. But we're also going to eat lunch with the team and call it. We made some good progress. I mean, you know, this is pretty overwhelming to think about how dirty and polluted this area is, but I think we did get some, some, I mean, the super sacks will tell, right? You'll see this giant pile of plastic that we got out. It's a dent in it. You got some guy watch getting after it too. I mean, we're, we're literally, we got all hands on deck for this situation and we're going to keep getting after it and try and get this place clean. It might take a few weeks, but we're going to try and get it clean and see what we can do to try and keep this beach clean. So just like cleanups like this, you've got a little cliff that you got to get up. And so what we do is we fire line a lot of these things. So we'll set up a team shoulder to shoulder. We'll pass them all up, stack them, and then load them back into the four ocean truck. God, dude, that smell is so strong. It's fish oil. It's all scales and fish oil and rotting trash. One, two, three, one, two, three. So that's what fire lining plastic from a lower cliff looks like. And, uh, we did good so far. What do you say guys? All right. So we got a good amount here. I don't know what it's going to end up weighing, but it's. A solid amount of plastic for sure. So we're going to bring the little four ocean truck over, load that bad boy up, take it all back to the facility, grab some lunch, do some sorting. And, uh, we're going to get after it. So now we've got the truck loaded and we're actually at weight capacity because this is a lot of plastic. So we're going to have to break this up into two runs. So we've got a few more super sacks left, but we've got it filled up and now it's ready to head back to the facility. Thanks for cleaning our beaches. Four ocean bracelet. There we go. Did you get one? Look at this. Did you get one? There it is. You guys know the deal. Every cleanup while we're here, we try and spend as much time with our team as possible. So what we do is we do a cleanup mission in the morning and then we do lunch. So the team set up, check this out. The team set up this like awesome tent right here on the beach. We've got a nice, beautiful view, but they've got a bunch of, a bunch of lunch for everybody. So got some fresh fruits, got all of our cardboard, lunches, a little bit of water. We've got the whole team. Shout out to this company here, Alex. Filled on paper and banana leaves. Oh man, look at that. So no plastic packaging. Sustainability, baby. Love it. That's what I'm talking about. Tastes better. Yeah, it tastes better. Yeah, so we're going to have a little meal with the team here and just relax. And then after this, we're going to go back to the base. This is what beaches here in Indonesia and Bali should look like. They're very clean. It's a, it's a, it's a beautiful beach. It's a beautiful beach that is, you know, there's like almost, there's like no plastic. I feel completely confident walking around barefoot, just shells and the ocean. I asked, I asked the team, why is this area so clean? And they explained that the river mouth over back where we were just cleaning, the river mouth pushes all that plastic there. This is just a beach out more in the open area. And just the way that the wind and tides are hitting, it really doesn't hit. Also the education, check this out. The sign essentially says, please do not litter. So it's cool to see that they're putting that attention energy into it. And this is a very calm, peaceful. We are back at the 4ocean Java facility and now it is time to offload the plastic. So these are all the sacks that we collected this morning. We're going to offload everything and stack it up over here. One thing that we're going to do differently today is some of this plastic is very, very wet. So what we're going to do is we're going to stack it over here on the side. We're going to let that stuff dry out. And then we're going to weigh everything and sort it tomorrow. So we're going to get these offloaded and get everything photographed. And then tomorrow we document. That's all the trash and plastic from this morning. We've got the whole team, did a good job. Awesome. All right, guys. Like I said, this stuff is very wet, so we're going to let it dry out. Sorting team has been getting after it for quite some while. Do a little sorting. Dropping, moving. Yeah, can I get a high five? Oh, yeah. What's that? Yeah. Oh, yeah. A big smile. Yeah, yeah, yeah. How are you ladies? Thank you so much. All right, guys. So you got to see a cleanup today with our 4ocean Java team out here. If you guys are liking this content, please drop a like, drop us a comment. Subscribe. When you show us love, you're showing these Local 11 legends some love. So thank you so much for watching. We really appreciate it. We're going to keep bringing you guys behind the scenes content and showing you all the impact that we have. You guys have a good time? Awesome. Thank you, guys. We're not going to stop until the ocean's clean.