How small islands manage trash from tourism

HostIt's easy to think of a small island as a spot where time stands still and the world stays clean. But when we fly out to these tiny gems in the sea, we bring a lot of stuff with us that stays behind long after our tan fades. I was looking at a photo of a beach recently and realized that just past the edge of the frame, there was probably a pile of plastic that had nowhere to go. How do these tiny places keep from being buried under all the things we throw away?

GuestThat's the big puzzle. When you live on a small patch of land in the middle of the ocean, every scrap of plastic or glass is a huge weight. The sheer scale of it's what catches people off guard. On many of these islands, a single visitor can make three or four times more trash every day than a person who actually lives there. Think about what a tourist does. They buy bottled water because they don't trust the tap. They eat snacks out of wrappers. They use small soap bottles in the hotel. Almost everything they touch comes in a box or a jug that was brought in on a ship. Once that stuff is empty, it doesn't just vanish. It stays on that tiny rock.

HostWhy is it such a problem to just do what we do on the mainland? I mean, can they not just dig a big hole and bury it far away from the hotels?

GuestYou would think so, but it's a trap. Most small islands are made of coral or sand, which are like sponges. If you dig a hole and fill it with trash, the rain washes all the rot and chemicals straight down into the fresh water that people drink. Or it leaks out into the sea and kills the very reef that the tourists came to see. In the Maldives, they had a famous spot called Thilafushi. It was a whole island that was basically used as a giant pit. It grew by about a square meter every day just from trash. But you can't keep doing that. The smoke from burning the piles hangs over the water, and the plastic bits end up in the bellies of the fish.

HostSo if you can't bury it and you shouldn't burn it in an open pile, what's left? It seems like they're stuck between a rock and a hard place.

GuestWell, some places are getting very good at a sort of reverse shipping. Look at the Galapagos. Since they're so far out and the nature there's so special, they have to be very strict. They have a rule where almost everything has to be sorted by hand. The locals and the visitors put things into very specific bins. Then, all that paper, glass, and metal is crushed down, packed onto the same supply boats that brought the food in, and sent back to the mainland. It's a long trip, hundreds of miles, but it's the only way to keep the islands from choking.

HostThat sounds like it would cost a fortune. I mean, shipping heavy glass and metal across the ocean just to get rid of it has to be one of the most expensive ways to handle junk.

GuestIt is. It adds a huge tax to everything you buy. But the alternative is worse. If they don't ship it out, the island eventually runs out of space to breathe. Some places are trying to find a middle ground. Instead of just shipping it or burying it, they're building small plants that burn the trash at very high heat to make electricity. The Maldives is doing this now. They're moving away from that big trash island and building a plant that can turn hundreds of tons of waste into power every day. It cleans the smoke so it doesn't hurt the air, and it gives the island a way to keep the lights on without buying as much oil.

HostIs that really a fix, though? It feels like we're just finding a cleaner way to keep making more and more trash.

GuestThat's the friction point. Even the best plant can't keep up if the number of tourists keeps growing. Some islands have had to just close the door for a while. A few years ago, an island in the Philippines called Boracay was shut down for six months. The water had become so dirty from all the waste that the government said no one could visit. They used that time to fix the pipes and clear the beaches. It was a wake up call. It showed that if you don't have a plan for the trash, the tourism industry will eventually kill the very thing it sells.

HostIt makes me wonder if the real answer is just bringing less stuff in the first place. Like, if you don't bring the plastic bottle, the island doesn't have to figure out how to burn it or ship it.

GuestMany places are making that a rule now. You see spots in the Caribbean or places like Bali where they're banning single use plastics. They tell hotels they can't use those little plastic straws or bags anymore. Some islands even ask you to take your own trash back home with you in your suitcase. It sounds a bit odd to pack an empty sunblock bottle and fly it back home, but for a tiny island, that one bottle is a real win.

HostThe island of Thilafushi shows us that even a paradise has a limit to how much it can hold.

GuestThat old garbage island is now being cleaned up to make room for a future where the waste actually helps keep the lights on.