This sustainable initiative could save Bali from its waste epidemic

As visitation to Bali soars, so too do the piles of waste. But design-led resort, beach club and creative playground Potato Head is taking action and making an impact.

The eyes settle on a lot of lovely things in Bali: palm trees shading infinity pools, rice paddies terracing hillsides, day spas with sub-$30 price lists. What we don’t see are the mountainous landfills of plastic bottles, shopping bags and rubber thongs that heave as visitor numbers climb.

Desa Potato Head is a beach club and creative hub. (Image: All Is Amazing)

It’s estimated that hospitality on the Island of the Gods sends some 50 per cent of its waste to the dump, and with Bali now the world’s second biggest travel destination according to Tripadvisor, its rubbish problem is becoming even more acute.

Desa Potato Head fronts onto the ocean in Seminyak. (Image: Virgine Khateeb)

A cult-favourite beach club and resort, Desa Potato Head has been quietly working on the issue for the past seven years, cutting its restaurant and hotel trash so dramatically it now sends less than three per cent to landfill.

Its design was inspired by a desa (village in Indonesian). (Image: All Is Amazing)

In October 2024, it took things further by opening a collective waste centre with partners Motel Mexicola and Total Bangun Persada. In what’s believed to be a first for the island and possibly Indonesia, it has teamed with competitor businesses including Finns Recreation Club, Kynd Community and Peppers Seminyak to not just reduce the waste they (and by association, we visitors) produce, but upcycle it into useable design objects.

The onsite Waste Lab is a collaborative space aimed at becoming a zero waste operation.

The goal? To reduce the group’s landfill to just five per cent. “We have a bigger target to make Bali zero waste and we can’t work alone; it’s a collective effort, so we want to invite other properties to do the same thing,” says Potato Head’s sustainability director, Amanda Marcella.

A studio at the resort. (Image: All Is Amazing)

The non-profit Community Waste Project sits beside Denpasar’s 32-hectare landfill site, Suwung, which is only 7.5 kilometres from Kuta Beach.

The design-led resort finds colourful ways to repurpose trash. (Image: Adrian Morris)

Pre-weighed, recorded and sorted waste will be composted or prepared for upcycling. In true Potato Head style, the current from-waste objects are ones you’d have as statement pieces in your own home.

Trash is turned into design pieces.

Take chairs made of shredded bottle lids, melted into flat panels that fit into place without the use of nails. Or tissue boxes created from dissolved Styrofoam mixed with crushed oyster shells and pressed into a mould. Or wine bottles cut and bevelled, filled with spent cooking oil and repurposed as candles.

The OMA-designed Potato Head Studios. (Image: All Is Amazing)

The design objects created at the new Community Waste Project will change and evolve in response to what each member-business needs.

Resort furniture is created from repurposed materials. (Image: All Is Amazing)

It’s a pilot project which, all going well, will roll out in numerous locations, bringing in other sustainability-minded member-businesses that will be taught what steps to take, and audited.

Making furniture from repurposed waste.

“Members who want to join have to create the same waste processes and facilities as Potato Head,” says Marcella. Like a ripple effect on water, the plan is to widen the impact over time. “It’s also to change every property and person’s mindset, that waste is not waste until it goes to landfill,” she says. “When it’s mixed, it’s hard to recycle and repurpose. But when it’s nicely separated it’s a valuable item.”

Colourful homewares that were once rubbish. (Image: Tommaso Riva)

How to get involved

Anyone can visit the Community Waste Project to learn about this significant step towards regenerative tourism. Our tip is to stay at Potato Head Suites (the property was just listed in the World’s 50 Best Hotels for the second time) and tie in a visit with the illuminating Follow the Waste tour.