I have been working my way north from Bolivia for the past year. In every single country I have been to garbage has been an ENORMOUS problem. People throw/dump/drop it anywhere. I've seen tracs rafts floating down the Beni River, and also high up on the floodplains along the railway tracks on the way to Uyuni (the water had receded and it was a flat expanse of plastic bottles as far as the eye could see).
Since I have been here in Utila (beginning of Aug) the ginormous trash swath has come in three times. One time it was unbelievable how much stuff there was. While it may be true that Cruise Ships still dump their trash, I can't believe that all this garbage comes from them.
It is not a stretch to see from all the garbage being carelessly disposed that it makes it's way into the ocean and becomes these horrid floating swaths of disgusting, discarded plastic. From the hundreds of miles of coastline, and the rivers, which are fed the garbage whenever it rains, and the amount that I have seen just eveywhere I don't think we can point the finger just at Cruise Ships. it's every day garbage. There's shoes, toys, bottles, take-out containers, diapers, household items...It comes from the coasts and is shuffled along by the currents. It's all on it's way to meet up with the giant plastic island in the Pacific.
I look at the plastic flotilla and all that I think is how much work we have cut out for us.
