When I was travelling in Indonesia early 2001, I was astonished about the enormous amounts of rubbish everywhere. It was like visiting a huge rubbish dump. You could find rubbish on the streets, in train stations, in trains, in National Parcs, in vulcanoes, on the beach, etc., etc. It was so difficult for me to understand why people just threw their rubbish out of the window when travelling by bus, train or boat. It was also impossible to loose track of the paths that I was hiking on as you just needed to follow a trail of trash. Even nature 'lovers' obviously couldn't care less. When I asked people why they didn't keep their trash with them (and throw it in a dustbin), it felt like they didn't understand my question. It had obviously become such a habit to just throw it everywhere. When I was lying in bed, I often contemplated about organizing trash collection as my next career move.
When Anna and I visited Indonesia again in 2008, it had become even worse. When we would go diving, air had to be released from our tanks in order to clear the surface above when surfacing from a dive. It felt like diving in a the sewage. We also visited more remote parts of Indonesia like the Molucas and the Spice Islands. It was however as bad as in the populated areas. When we hiked Devil's mountain (it was 666 m high), I took a plastic bag with me and used it to fill it with trash. It was full rather quickly. When I saw the pictures of Kuta beach (Bali) in the news earlier this week, I was not surprised. The beaches were full with rubbish, despite the fact that local authorities employed 600+ people and 34 trucks to remove 100 tonnes of plastic every day. Whatever they did, every day the beaches were covered by plastic by the incoming tide.
We have now been traveling some 7 weeks and I still cannot get used to seeing rubbish. Ok, it is not as bad as in Indonesia (the second largest ocean polluter after China) but it still does feel awkward. Even as Costa Rica aims for nature tourism, people do throw away a lot of trash. Panama is a little worse, with Bocas de Toro (like Bali, a tourist hotspot) being the most polluted place that we have visited in Panama so far. Today, I took a picture from a beach in Panama City. Not as bad as Kuta but it gives an impression.
We as parents, try to set a good example to our girls. We try to limit our consumption, we re-use (we e.g. bought steel straws) where possible, we educate our girls, and we only leave footprints at the places that we visit. We also take a plastic bag with us to collect trash when we go out for hikes in the mountains an on the beaches. It will not 'turn the tide on plastic' but it does feel good to do something about this huge problem. Like today, when we visited a NP close to Panama City and did a short 60 minutes hike.
It is great to read about the several initiatives to clean up the oceans and to limit the usage of plastic like the UN initiative to 'Turn the tide on plastic'. So far, 40 countries (CR and Indonesia included) have signed a treaty and committed themselves to decrease the pollution of plastic to the seas by 70% by 2025. That is quite am ambitious but also necessary goal. The 'Turn the tide on plastic' VO 65, currently competing in the Volvo Ocean Race does great work to bring this issue (oceans being polluted with plastic trash) to the attention of the bigger public. I just hope they win some races to attract an even bigger crowed.
Hopefully when our kids are big enough to travel by themselves, things might have changed for the better. Our little bags with collected trash will not make a difference but the UN initiative might create the awareness and trigger the action that was missing in 2001 and 2008 and is still missing in 2017. Hopefully 2018 will be a turning point. I might will also give that career contemplation from 2001 another thought......what more can I do!
