From the stories here, I can't imagine my experience is as bad but I was very surprised at the amount of roadside rubbish in Kosovo. Stop to take a photo of the beautiful mountains and you're wading through plastic bags.

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Paul "Every county of England, every country of Europe and every (part of every inhabited) continent of the Earth" 94% done! What's left? Central America, East, Central and West Africa, Australia & New Zealand

Perhaps the manufacturers of all those plastic bottles and containers might launch a promotional campaign against littering and fund recycling efforts.

Maybe they do already, but the programs are ineffective, not big enough, corrupt, or all of the above.

If recycling centers were established and could be run profitably I am sure more people would collect and sell plastic to the recycle centers.

The question becomes, is recycling of plastic profitable? The folks that live and work in and around the large landfills (dumps) must be profiting somehow.

Anti littering campaigns and signs are beginning to appear along the Panamericana and on major highways throughout Mexico, Central and South America. Enforcement is not happening....

Hugh fines are threatened in the United States and Canada for littering with enforcement, and this seems to have some effect.

As an example, over landers reading here could send suggestions that might begin to solve the problem to corporate CEOs who bottle/wrap their products in plastic.

I imagine hugh steel coca cola bottle shaped and painted containers used to collect plastic . This would serve as product promotion and give corporations a greener image. The bottles could have trap door bottoms and could be lifted and opened over available dump trucks for transport to established recycle centers. What we need are creative ideas that would enable people to profit from participating in the recycle process.

For that matter the dump trucks could sport product advertising and be donated by the corporations selling products in plastic bottles/containers.

I don't really like the idea of a horizon featuring hugh coca cola bottle collecting points, but that might be better than seeing the raw windblown litter. I remember in Spain the signs shaped like big black bulls on hill tops along major highways - advertising something or other. One gets used to them.

Of course the challenges of living in some countries are so great that preventing litter is not high on the agenda. This sometimes is overlooked by people coming from countries with safety nets that provide adequate food, shelter and medical care for the chronically poor and unemployed.

What is needed are ideas that describe workable systems that make recycling profitable for the people, corporations and governments.

We have well traveled, creative people wandering the HUBB and have perspectives on this issue based upon successes observed worldwide.

Ideas? Let's not forget that the we have a State of Texas sized mass of litter, mostly plastic, floating in the middle of the Pacific Ocean..... Whats up with that?

xfiltrate

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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www.whereishemuli.eu
Riding round the World

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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!