#HTE

Why People Throw Trash In Their Own Backyard

This month we’re reporting from Indonesia, a country in Southeast Asia comprised of thousands of tiny islands. Of these islands, the beauty of Bali is legendary but as we found out when we arrived, it shares at least one thing in common with other island destinations—an enormous amount of waste littering the shores. When I’m traveling to developing countries, I see an enormous amount of waste—on the street, surrounding houses, clogging up rivers and washing up on beaches. Everywhere. And the weirdest thing is that its the community’s own trash.

Why would people throw trash in their own backyard? I never understand why they would do that. That is until I visited Indonesia. 

We contributed to the conversation around waste by participating in the weekly beach cleanup where 95% of the waste we collected was plastic. If you ever need a new flipflop, you can find one in Bali. 

This story originally appeared on Story Hopper, a collection of design stories worth sharing, squeezed into short videos.