A Balinese Eco Resort Turns Waste Into Wonder

Even in an age where sustainable hospitality has become a marketing buzzword, Desa Potato Head stands as an established fixture in Bali’s hospitality landscape that genuinely walks the talk. Part eco think tank, part cultural platform, part Indonesian design embassy, the 168-room resort has spent fourteen years perfecting its approach to do-good luxury. 

Hugging one of the last pristine stretches of beachfront in Seminyak, the Desa Potato Head complex has evolved from a vibrant beach club—hosting acts like Peggy Gou and Snoop Dogg—into a sprawling “village” with 225 rooms, six dining venues, an underground dance club created in partnership with DJ Harvey, and public art installations by Futura, Ines Katamso, and Liina Klauss, and more. 

At its center sits the Creative Centre, which opened in 2021 as their most ambitious architectural statement—a cathedral-like structure constructed of recycled Javanese shutters, its open-air design by Dutch firm OMA inspired by traditional Balinese villages.

“We wanted to do a contrast,” founder Ronald Akili told Surface when the property first opened in 2019. “Let’s bring in Indonesian culture and name it something that people will always ask about—who would ever name their business Potato Head?”

That irreverent spirit masks a serious mission. While luxury resorts typically generate enormous waste, Potato Head turned sustainability into its core identity. At latest count, they’ve reached 97.5% zero-waste to landfill—an achievement that earned it certification from the United Nations Climate Neutral Now initiative, the first Indonesian hospitality company to receive the recognition.

What distinguishes Potato Head is how they’ve transformed sustainability from obligation to attraction. “This is what we call ‘waste-to-design solutions,'” says Dan Mitchell, chief creative officer. The daily Follow the Waste tour has become one of the property’s most popular activities, inviting guests behind the curtain to witness the full lifecycle of their consumption.

The tour begins where organic matter is separated from non-organic waste, continues through outdoor workshops where plastics are sorted by color, and culminates in a maker space where discarded materials are transformed into design objects.

Visitors watch artisans carve the Potato Head logo into recycled plastic bottle caps for welcome gifts and transform beer bottles into elegant candle holders and drinking vessels. Even beach club patrons get a self-guided waste education via displays along the entrance walkway. “The purpose is to convey a serious message in a fun and culturally relevant way,” says Mitchell.

This past October, Potato Head expanded its impact by opening a Community Waste Center in collaboration with neighboring properties. The initiative addresses the sobering reality that even with their own operation nearly waste-free, over 500 hotels in Bali continue contributing to the island’s massive trash problem.

For Akili, the mission became personal when he was surfing with his son and found themselves surrounded by floating garbage. On the beach, the accumulation had become so severe that the government deployed tractors to clear it. “Sustainability is often tethered to scarcity,” Akili says. “But to defeat indifference, the solutions must be desirable. Beautiful, functional, really cool—and it just so happens to be recycled.”

This philosophy extends throughout the property’s design. Studio rooms feature wall tiles made from crushed oyster shells and Styrofoam waste. Amenities include sunscreen in refillable aluminum jars, biodegradable slippers crafted from coconut husks, and a hidden bar inside each coffee table with tools for mixing cocktails from local spirits.

To elevate these “leftovers” into luxury objects, Potato Head enlisted design luminaries Max Lamb and Faye Toogood. “I never would have thought about or come across Potato Head,” admits Lamb, who received an unexpected email from Mitchell and Akili in 2018. “I don’t go to beach clubs, I’m not really a holiday-goer, and I had never been to Bali.”

What convinced him was “the ambition to turn Potato Head into the design capital of Indonesia with the lowest possible impact.” Upon arriving, Lamb discovered an unprecedented creative freedom, collaborating directly with local artisans to produce volcanic sand stoneware and custom furniture. “From sketch to final product it was done in two or three days,” he says. “You can’t do that anywhere else.”

Jan Rose, Creative Director at Toogood, shares a similar experience. Originally approached to design staff uniforms, their role expanded to furniture and textiles. One afternoon found them piecing together a rug from fabric scraps on a workshop floor while craftspeople simultaneously stitched it together. “It wasn’t an endless hotel project on the other side of the world where we had to send drawings and receive pictures back,” notes Rose.

Looking forward, Potato Head plans to open an on-site design center this year, expand artist residencies, and launch “Wasted,” a product line that allows guests to take home pieces made from recycled materials. “We’re interweaving music, art, design, well-being, food, and regeneration into what we believe is a holistic approach to life,” says Mitchell.