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I saw that on the Malaysian peninsula. Chinese fishing villages that still speak an old dialect of Cantonese. It's worse in what looks to be the dry season and

I saw that on the Malaysian peninsula. Chinese fishing villages that still speak an old dialect of Cantonese. It's worse in what looks to be the dry season and low tide like you have there. The other issue is that it's not important to them to clean it up - as it was explained to me. I talked to a local while there and she explained that growing up she never saw it, but years away and she doesn't like it now but knows no one is interesting in picking it up. Partly because they don't seem to care in her opinion partly because they don't have trash service there anyhow, a lot of the trash is put there by the people that live right above it. So it seems like double work to them. Why spent weeks cleaning it up when they're dumping their daily trash there and have been for a hundred years - before plastic it wasn't really a problem of course. There is another issue that many of these little above water fishing villages do have running water - but no sewage. I've seen toilets and sinks that look right down into the water. You DO NOT want to go down there. I think an important thing to note was of the trash I saw, none of it had American or Chinese labels, instead was bahas-malay writing, or local brands. So it's a little hard to say "oh how awful! I need to do something" when unfortunately, they're doing a lot of it it to themselves directly or their countrymen. It is sad thought, totally agree. And Borneo was awesome, but don't tell anyone!

lisper 8y ago
> You DO NOT want to go down there. I don't actually know if this village had sewers or not (I suspect not) but we did see people swimming in the water.
- SlowRobotAhead 8y ago
  That was more of a YOU don't want to go in there. They might be way more used to it in terms of built up resistance.
munificent 8y ago
I live in Seattle, one of the most expensive cities in the US. Most of the houseboats on Lake Washington and Lake Union dumped their sewage straight into the lakes until the late 60s. It was only this year that we passed an ordinance prohibiting dumping treated sewage from boats into Puget Sound and the lakes. That's a shudder-inducing thought when you consider that many of the delicious oysters we have here are directly under those boats, filtering everything they can out of the water. Most of human history has involved treating bodies of water like magical devices that teleport waste away forever.
- omegaworks 8y ago
  > Most of human history Most of life, really. It's only recently (the last century) that we've hit upon such economies of scale, population and production capacity that our natural renewal processes can no longer handle the load.
  - mattdmrs 8y ago
    That, and plastic material making up much of that load. Dumping large quantities of wood =/= dumping large quantities of styrofoam.
- unethical_ban 8y ago
  I thought federal regulations required the dumping of sewage 12-25 miles from coastline.
  - oasisbob 8y ago
    They do - this expands those regulations (which have exceptions for discharge of treated sewage) into a full-blown "no discharge zone" (NDZ), where even treated effluent can't be dumped. As I understand it, the federal regulations reference distance from land - and the Puget Sound is really more of a sea than an open coastline. The previous regulation was something like being 3 miles away from land to dump untreated sewage. https://www.marineinsight.com/tech/sewage-treatment-plant/ https://www.marineinsight.com/tech/sewage-treatment-plant/ https://ecology.wa.gov/Water-Shorelines/Puget-Sound/No-discharge-zone https://ecology.wa.gov/Water-Shorelines/Puget-Sound/No-disch...
  - munificent 8y ago
    Yes, like oasisbob says, the "treated" in my sentence is significant. Federal regulations prohibit dumping untreated sewage, but allow dumping it if it's treated (chemically broken down, I think roughly similar to what you'd do in a septic tank). Call me crazy, but I'm still not super keen on eating oysters that have had treated sewage raining down on them either.
- ransom1538 8y ago

lisper 8y ago

> You DO NOT want to go down there. I don't actually know if this village had sewers or not (I suspect not) but we did see people swimming in the water.

SlowRobotAhead 8y ago
That was more of a YOU don't want to go in there. They might be way more used to it in terms of built up resistance.

munificent 8y ago

I live in Seattle, one of the most expensive cities in the US. Most of the houseboats on Lake Washington and Lake Union dumped their sewage straight into the lakes until the late 60s. It was only this year that we passed an ordinance prohibiting dumping treated sewage from boats into Puget Sound and the lakes. That's a shudder-inducing thought when you consider that many of the delicious oysters we have here are directly under those boats, filtering everything they can out of the water. Most of human history has involved treating bodies of water like magical devices that teleport waste away forever.

omegaworks 8y ago
> Most of human history Most of life, really. It's only recently (the last century) that we've hit upon such economies of scale, population and production capacity that our natural renewal processes can no longer handle the load.
- mattdmrs 8y ago
  That, and plastic material making up much of that load. Dumping large quantities of wood =/= dumping large quantities of styrofoam.
unethical_ban 8y ago
I thought federal regulations required the dumping of sewage 12-25 miles from coastline.
- oasisbob 8y ago
  They do - this expands those regulations (which have exceptions for discharge of treated sewage) into a full-blown "no discharge zone" (NDZ), where even treated effluent can't be dumped. As I understand it, the federal regulations reference distance from land - and the Puget Sound is really more of a sea than an open coastline. The previous regulation was something like being 3 miles away from land to dump untreated sewage. https://www.marineinsight.com/tech/sewage-treatment-plant/ https://www.marineinsight.com/tech/sewage-treatment-plant/ https://ecology.wa.gov/Water-Shorelines/Puget-Sound/No-discharge-zone https://ecology.wa.gov/Water-Shorelines/Puget-Sound/No-disch...
- munificent 8y ago
  Yes, like oasisbob says, the "treated" in my sentence is significant. Federal regulations prohibit dumping untreated sewage, but allow dumping it if it's treated (chemically broken down, I think roughly similar to what you'd do in a septic tank). Call me crazy, but I'm still not super keen on eating oysters that have had treated sewage raining down on them either.
ransom1538 8y ago