Putu Evie Leads by Example

Putu Evie Suyadnyani

Putu Evie Suyadnyani was born in Denpasar, Bali, and grew up in Sanur. The beach and dance were both staples of her life. Evie runs a gamelan and dance studio in Denpasar dedicated to preserving traditional Balinese dance and music. For Evie Balinese art and culture cannot be separated from the environment, as it has functioned as a source of inspiration for many dancers and musicians.

13 years ago, Evie and her family decided to take the steps necessary to reduce their plastic consumption. “Since we were going to have our own family, we would produce more waste and it would not be good for our children,” Evie explained. “We decided we had to be more responsible, especially since we live in Indonesia where there is no proper waste management system, unlike New Zealand where my husband is from.”

Evie and her husband noticed that their neighbors were always burning trash in their backyards. 7 years ago Evie and her family bought a house in Kertalangu, and environmental concerns in the area were very pronounced. “we decided that we wanted to make some positive changes in the village,” Evie explained. “Over the past thirty years I have tried to become a person who can serve as a role model not only to my family but to my community. We are very disciplined about our plastic diet: reduce, reuse and recycle is a must in our house, and we have even made our extended family and staff do so too.”

Evie’s family has served as role models in their community, and last year drew the notice of the local chief, who has supported her efforts and desire to help the community.

I would like to start by asking you to tell us a little bit about yourself. when did you get involved with Trash Hero? Why did you decide to run the Kertalangu chapter?

July 26th of 2017 was when we first launched our Trash Hero chapter in the village of Kesiman Kertalangu, East of Denpasar. We called it Trash Hero Kertalangu. We were very aware of the many problems we faced in our village such as littering, trash burning and an inadequate waste management system. The opportunity came when we had a new leader in the village who had asked me for my support in finding solutions, so I proposed opening the Trash Hero community in the area.

Please tell us about some of the activities that Kertalangu Trash Heroes carry out.

So we run a small coordination team, which includes my husband and myself, and several volunteers. We hold weekly action meetings. We organize weekly cleanups and organize educational campaigns. We work with the Trash Hero World book project and a nearby school to raise awareness and educate children on the importance of the environment. We also try to inspire people and to generate awareness of a zero-waste lifestyle via a monthly EduTalk that we organize. It is our hope that by raising awareness and through practical action that we can inspire others around us to create real change in our community.

How many volunteers do you work with in Kertalangu?

Our volunteers come and go, and typically we operate with at least 20-30 people. At the moment I have built a core team of 8 people that help me coordinate the events and our social media.

Can you tell us a bit about the first beach cleanup you held?

The first beach cleanup was amazing, and served as a declaration as well. I never expected the event to grow into such a large thing, and it was such a great opportunity. We hadn’t expected the first event to be a joint venture between us and Denpasar’s government offices.

Just a few days before the cleanup was scheduled to take place, we got a call from the secretary of the village who told me that our schedule clashed with Denpasar’s own cleanup event. I had told them that we needed to stick to our schedule as it had already been announced, and in turn they asked us if we could merge our events. Of course, I said yes as this was a great idea.

Scheduling the regular Trash Hero Kertalangu cleanups together with the government’s existing plans was a good idea. I believe that a good government program can be more successful when people from the community are involved. Many people warned us that working with the government would complicate our efforts but I wanted to prove that this was not true at all.

We had around 1,200 people participating in the first cleanup. We had 8 schools participate as well, sending roughly 20 students per school. We also had 11 community centers and their community leaders participate. In all we drew from a wide variety of people, with a lot of involvement from both men and women, as well as youth groups, government officials, local police officers, and companies.

One big problem in Bali is that the trash collection centers are very full, and much of the trash taken to these centers end up in the water again anyways. What do you think is the impact of beach cleaning activities in Bali?

Beach cleanups probably won't solve the problem, but our weekly beach cleanup helps us generate a wider awareness of the dangers of plastic pollution and marine pollution. Everyone undergoes change in their own pace, and have their own levels of awareness. This is why we believe that leading by example is so important. We educate through action, and we believe people are inspired through action.

It seems to me that Bali's trash problems have three main obstacles: education, collection and disposal. Without good education and waste disposal infrastructure it sometimes feels like we are trying to empty the ocean with a spoon. Are there enough efforts by the government to improve Bali's waste management?

I totally agree to those three obstacles. While keeping our weekly action going, we also involve kids through early education. We regularly meet with local and regional government figures, and often speak to village leaders to share our vision and encourage change.

And we have seen the government change their attitude over time. We hope that by continuing our activities every week that the topic will remain on the radar until real change takes place. So far in Denpasar we have seen change take place. People have begun campaigning to reduce single-use plastic bags in retail outlets. Now, there is no ban yet but this is a good start. In Denpasar, Gianyar, Badung, Karangasem, and Singaraja the government has already become involved in supporting Trash Hero projects.

How about education?

Well many schools have begun providing environmental education. In Denpasar some schools have trash banks and gets the kids involved by having them separate waste. They also run weekly environmental education classes, and schools that do offer environmental education programs are granted the title Sekolah Adiwiata. We recently got a letter from my son’s school asking the children and their parents to separate their trash at home and to bring it in. the school said they will give the children a cheque book for their efforts that the kids can use to ride the school bus for free.

We need to spread the word about the dangers of trash burning, and to educate people not to litter, to reduce their waste, and to separate trash. Action must follow education.