Environment

Rubbish Island at The Maldives

by Milieunet | January 3, 2009 at 04:50 am

4503 views | 34 Recommendations | 6 comments

Do you know The Maldives? Yes, of course it is so nice over there. Nice beaches and some call it Paradise on Earth. And yes, The Maldives have problems with rising sea-levels, but it seems to me they have some more problems. The Maldives are an archipelago of 1,192 islands in the Indian Ocean, grouped into 26 atolls. They have a population of 270,000, but on top of that last year 650,000 tourists visited the islands. All these people are eating, consuming and finally they produce lots of waste. What to do with it? That's the question. Well they found some sixteen years ago a solution. Let's take one nice unspoilt coral reef and let's start shipping all waste to that place and just dump it over there. Great thinking !! So, Thilafushi receives hundreds of tonnes of rubbish from other islands in the Maldives every day and the Rubbish Island is now growing by one square metre every day with rubbish. Elin Hoyland took a set of striking photographs that document the growing problem of waste disposal on these beautiful islands. Source: Guardian Worldwide waste is getting one of the biggest problems on earth. We produce so much waste and we re-use too less, recycle too less. It is time for change. Change to a zero-waste society.

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Uwe Paschen

at 04:59 on January 3rd, 2009

In Tokyo the City is expending into the sea build on piles of Garbage wish is not that good off an Idea either.

Milieunet

at 05:06 on January 3rd, 2009

Hello Uwe,

Yes, we do crazy things and we even don't know what the effects will be in the long term. We should realize that waste in fact are resources and we should use or re-use those materials.

Terri Potratz

at 08:54 on January 3rd, 2009

Not a very pretty sight..

Amy Judd

at 13:35 on January 3rd, 2009

This is awful - definitely not paradise on earth when you see that.

mode (not verified)

at 21:43 on January 3rd, 2009

Only one island is for Rubbish, Still there are sun, sand and sea, a thousand ‘Robinson Crusoe’ islands, massive lagoons with different depths and infinite shades of blue and turquoise, dazzling underwater coral gardens; a perfect natural combination for the ideal tropical holiday destination....!

Have to see some images: http://www.flickr.com/mashafeeg