Only one? I have heard that there are actually three plastic swirls in Pacific ocean.
Checked this and looks like there is one in Pacific and two others in other oceans http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_P..._garbage_patch

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This is a very serious thing. Really sad! I heard a good radio Docu on the subject. All this plastic is honestly risking the future of our Oceans, killing them off ... and everything that lives in the Ocean.

Once the Oceans are gone ... humans are gone too. There is so little awareness of this. Sounds like it's time for a WORLD effort to clean up the garbage at sea! This is something we can actually do ... unlike Global Warming ... which is NOW TOO LATE TO REVERSE.

BTW, California and many US states charge a deposit for ALL ALU or plastic
containers. This is not new here ... at least 20 years old. There are recycling centers in most counties and cities where they BUY BACK Alu and plastic containers and then recycle it. This is a BIG BUSINESS!!

Here in California many poor and homeless survive collecting and then selling the plastic/Alu containers.

Also, now in parts of California and other states plastic bags are now OUT LAWED! NO MORE!

Now, most people bring in their own re-usable bags to the store. If you have no bag ... they sell you a paper bag or re-usable plastic bag.

Liter: Here, like much of the developed world, there is a HUGE fine for tossing liter out of your car. I think it's $1000 here. Tiny steps, but steps nonetheless. We could be doing a LOT MORE!

I remember reading an account of some guys travelling through the sahara. they stopped to look at some site of rock art and someone else that was there threw some rubbish on the floor.When they were admonished for it their response was 'why would I worry, I'm not coming here again'

As long as there are nobbers like that in the world, we haven't got a chance

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The Adelphi Hotel in Liverpool. I shit you not, one of the dirtiest hotels I've ever stayed in!!

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About Hotels that must have been the hotel in Balakan, Azerbajzan. It's quite a few years ago now, so things will have changed.

The room hadn't seen any water for the last I don't know how many years. There was a pile in the toilet, everything was black and grubby (I mean everything).

Some people on the street new about the state of the rooms. They tought it was unacceptable for us to stay in that place and offerd us to stay in their home. We gladly accepted. All without common language.

I don't know where I seen it, but it was a novelty bin. More like a goal netting by some traffic light's. More or less throw your rubbish in to the goal and a light show's goal. You would be surprised just how much was going in to the net. Bin men round empty netting, re set goal. A few more of them around and the place would be cleaner.
John933

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My personal first prize for the most dirty and rubbished - up countries on the planet goes to....

Russia!

Not that it is actually the country with the most feces and plastic bags per sq mile along the highways, (Cambodia, India or Bangladesh get that prize), but Russia is the country where the people should KNOW better, and a country with huge resources where there IS money for garbage trucks, education and sanitation.

If you ride the moto along any major highway in Russia, stop and look behind ANY bus stop, it has been used as a latrine, for sure. I took quite a few pix, but posting them here would be tasteless.

If you look for a nice place to pitch your tent for the night in Russia (space enough there surely is) you WILL discover plastic rubbish behind every tree or bush where a local person has been before. The highways have trash stations every few miles where people are supposed to depose their rubbish, but almost always those stations are overflowing so much you can't make out the original containers.

Shame on the Russians! Pretty proud of their culture and education system, but there seems to be something lacking...

I'd vote Thailand as one the nastiest rubbish dumps I've seen.

You don't notice it at first, most folks are reasonably tidy around their homes and shops, sweeping fastidiously.

But lately I've taken to riding the bicycle and from that vantage it's rather shocking how the Thai dump their garbage.

It's interesting to observe how the USA 40-50 years ago had some very active anti-littering TV campaigns. They actually worked IMHO. The USA is relatively litter free.

After Thailand I'd say Argentina is the nastiest. There they are fond of dumping dirty baby diapers at lovely scenic spots. You could just about count on seeing dirty diapers wherever you stopped. Once I passed through Buenos Aires whilst they were having a public worker strike. On every street corner were mountains of garbage, and it stunk to high heaven.

As to the OP's observations of Northern Peru I can't say I'd concur.
I've been through that area a time or two, and litter wasn't so visible.
Ya had to watch for corrupt police, they were waving at you regularly. I'd usually wave back an keep going. Occasionally I'd get trapped in a roadblock and have to show my papers. Speaking modestly fluent Spanish I'd ream the officers a new asshole for harassing tourists.(a good offense is the best defense)

In 1979 whilst diving (working) under a ship in the port of Champa on the Ganges, apart from layers of black slime - god knows what it was made up of it was a filthy silage and rotten rubbish, plastic, leather and wood in the murky waters we also found two very decomposed bodies wrapped in shrouds trapped amongst some metal that had been dumped into the water. not a place for swimming the Ganges. !

Jake.

Wow! Ganges must have been a real sewer...
It is still dirty, but should be cleaner than earlier.

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A bog in Goa, I kid you not I opened the door and nearly spewed, it was a squat that had obviously become blocked at some distant point in time but that hadnt put off about another fifty people from taking a ship in there and just adding to the mountain of excrement.

The mound of turd was level with my waste!!! they must have been some brave tall folk who helped shape that peice of arese art.

Taking the overnight train into Bombay was also an eye opener, as you get nearer to the city centre all the locals walk out to the railway lines and take their morning dump!! it's like welcome to Mumbai see a thousand bums before breakfast!!

then again the bogs at glastonburry aint much cop either!!

Most of Indonesia is a dump. I never once went for a swim in the whole of the country when we cycled there. I saw what was in the rivers feeding the sea.

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India is beyond filthy in parts, I think that'll always be the worst in terms of plastic benig dumped everywhere. Someone said that it's due to the culture, i.e. old India before the economic changes caught up to her, had only organic waste so what was thrown away would always certainly be hoovered up by the cows, donkeys, etc, that graze all over urban areas. With the advent of plastics, the property of the waste changed but not the culture.

As for South America, Chile and Argentina are pretty okay but anywhere in closeness to urban zones will have apparently been visited by many freelance binmen, it's just feckless laziness and I hate it. Peru was the worst in this respect, I saw a bog literally dumped with a load of other crap in a national park, I was going to take a picture, but didn't even bother stopping. How sad.

But let's not forget Europe would be a dump if it were not for extensive campaigns by government, and local authorites who clean up after flytipppers. Likewise, we just sell much of our waste and dump it elsewhere, for little kids to shift through in China or Africa, etc. USA dumped tons of radioactive waste in barrels right off their ships, apparrently tens of thousands of tons, right up until the 80's. When I see all this crap by the side of the road, it's hard not to think of how many used oil filters, plasitc containers of oil, air filters, tires, tubes, etc, I've gone through just in a year out here.

Well you must have plenty of trash over there Kayjay because you have quite a few inhabitants in your country....

The dirtiest place I have ever been to is Kathmandu in Nepal...

There is rubbish everywhere & on sidewalks & street corners, in the road & propped up outside buildings (mainly street shops).
The people seem to have no comprehension of tidiness, & have a disinterest in making their environment look better.
There is a river running through part of the city that has more rubbish in it than my local City trash dump here in Branson!

I've been into Peru, yes the north is sort of dirty with rubbish, India is filthy too but nothing in my mind beats filth of Pakistan. The buildings are dirty, the streets are dirty, even some of the cooks in roadside cafes are dirty. The walls of hotels are dirty, the appliances are dirty.

The streets are dirty due to lack of infrastructure but there is no excuse for simple things like beds, light switches, toilets etc being filthy.

Parts of India can be like that too.

Its nothing to do with poverty, it just needs soap and water. Contrast with central america where people arent exactly rich but the streets are swept cleaner than many places in Europe. They take pride in where they live.

On another note, I was looking to place a wrapper in India. I asked some local who said throw it on the street, I ended up having mild argument why the place was a tip. His response was "the government should do something". In reply, I was annoyed and told him that "No. You people should do something"!

enough of my waffle ... just my opinion and how I saw it.

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