Indonesia’s holiday island Bali has enacted a ban on single-use plastics such as shopping bags, styrofoam and straws in efforts to curb pollution in its waters, according to a report by the Jakarta Post on Tuesday (Dec 25).

The new policy aims for a 70 per cent reduction in Bali’s marine plastics by 2019, announced Bali governor Wayan Koster a day earlier.

This policy is aimed at producers, distributors, suppliers and business actors, including individuals, to suppress the use of single-use plastics.

They must substitute plastics with other materials.

Bali sits in the middle of the Indonesian Throughflow, a current that streams from the Pacific Ocean into the Indian Ocean through the straits of Indonesia.

This means that plastic waste could either be local or brought in from as far away as the Pacific Ocean.

The plastic waste could be coming from anywhere in Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia or beyond.