Bali’s biggest open landfill, Suwung TPA, stopped accepting organic waste on April 1, ending the practice of sending mixed rubbish to the site just outside Denpasar and near Sanur. The landfill, which can be seen from planes flying in and out of Ngurah Rai International Airport, is now moving into a tighter phase ahead of its planned permanent closure on Aug. 1, 2026.
I Made Dwi Arbani said the provincial government is speeding up source-based waste management after direction from the environment minister on operational adjustments at Suwung TPA. He said households, businesses and communities that use the landfill must sort waste at the source, because organic and non-organic waste can no longer be mixed before delivery. That shift matters because Suwung stands 10 storeys high across 32 hectares and has been a point of concern for nearly a decade.
Arbani said organic waste has dominated the landfill so far. He said that creates the risk of flammable methane gas, foul odors, pollution from leachate and a faster fill rate. The problem is not confined to one neighborhood. Suwung receives waste from Denpasar and Badung Regency, including Sanur, Nusa Dua, Kuta, Legian and Seminyak, putting the change directly in the path of Bali’s tourism districts.
The closure plan has been in motion for years. The site was supposed to shut on Dec. 28, 2025, and the first major attempt to close it came ahead of Bali’s hosting of the G20 Summit in 2022. Instead, the landfill remained open while the government expanded alternatives, including 42 TPS3R units in Badung with a processing capacity of around 52.2 tons per day and 23 TPS3R units in Denpasar with a capacity of around 72.83 tons per day.
Officials have also distributed thousands of waste-processing tools to households and neighborhoods. Badung says it has handed out 141,719 composter bags, 3,570 composter bins and 16,053 modern waste bins, while Denpasar says it has distributed 5,002 units of waste processing facilities, including 253 compost bins, 283 modern waste bins and 177 waste processing tanks. The practical test now is whether those systems can absorb waste that once headed straight to Suwung.
The deadline on Aug. 1 is the clearest sign yet that Bali is no longer treating Suwung as a holding place for the island’s trash problem. The question now is not whether the landfill will close, but whether the sorting system built around it is ready before the gates shut for good.
