Bali Residents Burn Waste in Response to Suwung Landfill Ban, Koster Stands Firm on Restrictions

Residents are increasingly burning rubbish in their respective neighbourhoods following the policy banning the delivery of organic waste to the Suwung Final Disposal Site (TPA). Bali Governor Wayan Koster has been reluctant to comment extensively on the matter.

Koster stated that his side has taken enforcement steps. “It has already been regulated by the Head of the Environmental Agency,” said Koster when met after a plenary meeting at the Bali DPRD Office on Monday (6/4/2026).

He emphasised that the Bali Provincial Government has socialised the ban policy. Koster claimed that the socialisation was extensive to the public.

Koster also responded to the residents’ act of burning rubbish as a form of protest against the policy. He remains firm in limiting waste entering the Suwung TPA.

“It must be limited. It has already been regulated by the Head of the Environmental Agency,” he said briefly.

Previously, the Suwung TPA officially stopped accepting organic waste from 1 April 2026. This policy was implemented to accelerate the strengthening of source-based waste processing systems at the village level, in accordance with directives from the Minister of Environment, Hanif Faisol Nurofiq.

With this policy, the Suwung TPA now only accepts inorganic waste and residues.

The Head of the Bali Forestry and Environmental Agency, I Made Dwi Arbani, said this step is a response to the high composition of organic waste in Bali, which reaches 65 percent of the total waste generated, with high moisture content characteristics.

“So far, organic waste has dominated the waste at the TPA. This condition has the potential to produce flammable methane gas, unpleasant odours, environmental pollution from leachate, and accelerate the filling of the TPA,” said Arbani in his statement on Wednesday (1/4/2026).