Plastic in Paradise

I feel your pain. It is a struggle to ignore all the plastic in paradise, but sometimes a necessary mechanism to cope. I get seriously depressed seeing it all, but I can’t say it will stop me from traveling. I just try to pick up as much trash as I can along the way.

Plastic everywhere
I understand Indonesia has recently banned recyclables being exported to it by Australia as has China. Our Prime minister has declared that we should be responsible for disposal of our own rubbish and not ship it overseas. We had a TV series a couple of years ago that has been repeated called "The War on Waste" that was a hard hitting expose. It included putting trackers in some recyclables to see where they went and most became rubbish overseas. This indicated those countries were purchasing the items from us but not taking recycling seriously so further polluting their own countries. Attitudes are changing in Australia but it is slow. There was a ban on single use plastic bags in our supermarkets last year but consumers complained it was inconvenient so now they provide less biodegradable plastic bags for 15 cents and multi use bags for 99 cents.!!! We always take our own bags when shopping and so do many others. Some hotels & bars do not provide plastic straws but resistance by groups like McDonalds is strong. Every year there is a day devoted to cleaning our beaches by the public that has been going on for a number of years but of course the plastics float in from elsewhere such as Indonesia or by Aussies who do not clean up after themselves. Attitudes must change as EVERY fish in Australia contains some plastics that the fish have consumed, which we then eat and digest. I fear it is too late!!!

Tomok
I have posted this in the "Rock Art of the World" thread in the Photography Forum. This is a thread that has tremendous potential as there are so many examples TBers come across out there. Check it out.