What Garbage
21 November 2013
Vicki – Air 28C, Water 28C, Cloud 4/8, Swell 1m, Wind 1 kn
As we expected, there were a few comments about the exercise bike photo. We enjoy the feedback and think it’s probably worthwhile discussing the issue of garbage. World-wide, garbage is becoming a real problem. The First World does a pretty good job of keeping garbage out of sight and out of mind reasonably ecologically. This is done at some considerable expense. In the Third World there is seldom much provision made for any garbage. In San Blas, various pristine islands seemed to be the place where the locals stored the cruiser’s garbage at $1 a bag. This garbage is often thrown in the low and formally pristine wetland areas of the islands where humans don’t live. At other times, we could smell the acrid plastic as they attempted to burn it off. In some of the small islands of the Bahamas, it was not uncommon to see low areas littered with discarded refrigerators, stoves and mounds of plastic associated with their lives (see above photo taken at Little Grand Cay, Bahamas).
We have now spent nearly a year in the Third World and early on, we had to make a decision on how to handle garbage. As vegetarians who have a lot less garbage than most people, we meticulously separate our garbage into various categories which are suitable for disposal at sea complying with all international regulations. We feel this is far more ecologically advantageous than giving garbage to locals who either throw it into a lagoon or pile it into wetland areas. Occasionally when we have stayed at marinas in Third World countries, we have had no choice but to leave our garbage there but we still feel it is inferior to proper disposal at sea. To put everybody’s minds at ease, the rusting exercise bike, which we’ve been carrying around for over 6 months, had no plastic on it. We never throw plastic overboard and we felt that burying the bike in almost 7000 feet of water was far preferable to leaving it in the remote places we visited in Colombia or Panama. The International MARPOL treaty basically prohibits all waste disposal within 25 miles of shore (some glass and papers are allowed) and you are allowed to dispose most general waste besides plastic and hazardous material as soon as you’re more than 12 miles offshore, as long as it doesn’t float. People in the First World have to remember that in places like Bocas del Toro the average wage is $7 a day and garbage is the last thing they worry about. We have been constantly distressed to see how much litter is in the streets, rivers and piled up on beaches. It is not at all uncommon to see people drink from a can or plastic bottle and then throw it into the gutter. Sadly, it is not always possible to comply with First World niceties everywhere on the planet. We simply try to do our best to leave the minimum impact on all places we visit. Again, we are happy to have your feedback and please know that we respect the sea more than you could ever know.
We’ve been at sea for 4 days and 3 nights now and are currently approaching Jamaica where we will stop for a short visit. Vanish has taken us over 8,000 miles since June last year. We’ve done 640 miles upwind on this leg but still have a long way to go but at least the hard part is done. The weather window turned out to be as good as we hoped so we look forward to getting back to cruising.
(For further info check out http://marinedebris.noaa.gov/outreach/pdfs/101MARPOLPstr.pdf)