The Maldives - Viewed Through A Plastic Bottle

Beautiful, Idylic Sand Spit Island ?  Not Really ....                                                 

Every country we've sailed through has its share of waste littering the shore line.  Of course much of this pollution is plastic, blown across the seas from who knows where.   Going ashore yesterday on a nearby sand spit we were not surprised to see the typical range of shampoo and water bottles, rubber thongs (why are they always the left foot ?), coke containers and chunks of fishing net.

However we were not prepared for the local rubbish.....

Garbags half full, plastic plates and sandwich packs, all lying on the sand as if someone had just recently walked away from the mess.

After scouring the beach and examining many of the waste items it was obvious that most of it was locally generated (within the Maldives that is).

Not hard to read the place of manufacture on a coke bottle, or a juice bottle, and they were mostly of local manufacture.

Count The Plastic Bottles !

We think the picnic waste was left there by the "safari boats" that ply these waters with principally Europeans on board, but the majority of the plastic was home grown waste, blown ashore here. 

The local islands we have visited (local villages - no tourists) all seem to have a nominated garbage dump area, but there seems to be little control of what blows away (or floats away on the high tide).

I'd have expected the Maldives to do better than this.