5 MIN READ
06-02-2026
Cleaning the Shores of Parang Ireng Estuary
Dika, 4ocean Jembrana Content Correspondent
At 6 a.m., the 4ocean Java River Team departed once again for Parang Ireng Estuary inside Alas Purwo National Park. The early start was necessary due to the long journey to the remote cleanup site, where plastic waste continues to accumulate along the estuary and surrounding coastline.
Before leaving the 4ocean Java base, the team carefully prepared sacks, ropes, scales, and personal protective equipment needed for the day’s operation. After ensuring everything was ready, the crew traveled for approximately one hour and twenty minutes by pickup truck before arriving at the estuary.
What greeted them was both familiar and discouraging. Plastic bottles, snack wrappers, foam, plastic containers, sandals, shoes, paint cans, and organic debris were scattered across the shoreline. Between the sand and piles of bamboo branches, smaller fragments of plastic and microplastics had become deeply trapped along the coast.
Without wasting time, the team immediately began the cleanup.
Under the morning heat, empty sacks gradually filled with collected debris. Some crew members focused on removing larger waste along the estuary banks, while others carefully searched for microplastics hidden beneath sand and tangled bamboo debris.
The smallest pieces proved to be the most difficult to remove. Cleaning microplastics required patience, precision, and extra attention from the crew, especially in areas where plastic particles blended into the sand itself.
Despite the challenge, the team continued working steadily throughout the day.
By the end of the cleanup, the crew had collected 747.60 pounds of plastic waste across 61 sacks. Every sack was carried back to the weighing area, where the waste was carefully measured before being loaded onto the truck and transported to the 4ocean Java base for further sorting and processing.
For Ferri Prassetiawan, the condition of the estuary serves as a painful reminder of how deeply pollution has spread into natural ecosystems. “It is deeply saddening to see beaches and rivers, which should be beautiful and serve as safe homes for millions of aquatic ecosystems, filled with plastic waste. We, the 4ocean Team, hope that our actions can become a real form of education and inspiration for everyone, because protecting the cleanliness of nature is a shared responsibility that we must preserve together.”
The cleanup at Parang Ireng Estuary reflects a larger environmental issue affecting coastlines across Indonesia. Much of the marine debris found in estuaries and beaches begins far upstream, carried through rivers, drainage systems, and waterways before eventually reaching the ocean.
Plastic remains one of the most dangerous forms of pollution because it does not truly disappear. Over time, it breaks down into microplastics that become nearly invisible but continue spreading throughout marine ecosystems. These particles can enter the food chain through fish and other marine species before eventually returning to humans.
For the 4ocean Java River Team, cleanup missions like this are about more than removing visible waste from the coastline. They are also about building awareness that real solutions begin long before trash reaches the ocean.
Every plastic bottle removed from the estuary, every sack lifted from the shoreline, and every microplastic collected from the sand represents one more step toward protecting the future of rivers, beaches, and marine ecosystems.
