local community. Beyond the environmental issues, the visual pollution is a negative to tourism in one of the world’s most visited sites. The problem is that when the rains come and the lake floods, all this waste material is washed away (most of it will presumably reach the ocean) and out of sight becomes out of mind.
In Australia, a 15-year-old Sydney schoolgirl, Angelina Arora started a project to create an affordable and sustainable way of substituting plastics and also reducing seafood waste produced in India. This has led to her mentoring by the CSIRO and winning a BHP Billiton Foundation Science and Engineering Award.
To see so much non-biodegradable pollution is both heartbreaking and disconcerting, but things are starting to happen initiated more often than not by private enterprise first and then by governments. .
Researchers in Egypt and at Harvard’s Wyss Institute are also working on this safe and totally biodegradable solution.
In Siem Reap, the gateway to the world–famous Angkor temples, one hotelier started purifying water and supplying guests with refillable aluminium water bottles, with the aim of ultimately eliminating plastic bottles altogether. This led to a campaign, Refill not Landfill to reduce disposable water bottle waste with other hotels, restaurants and tourist operators joining in and setting up a growing network of refill stations that are now spreading to other areas in Cambodia. In Jaipur in India regular garbage trucks, now drive around the city with distinctive music blaring from their loudspeakers, announcing their arrival and encouraging people to bring out their refuse. This new initiative is certainly benefitting the city. When we were there in late January for the Literature Festival, we talked to locals who seemed proud of the improvements from the hygienic standpoint and in the look and feel of their city. We certainly noticed that Jaipur appeared considerably cleaner than when we visited a year ago. Some really interesting work is being done at the scientific level in developing bio-plastics from prawn shells. They consist of a hard yet flexible protein called chitosan, a version of chitin, the second most abundant organic material on the planet, that is found in fungal cells, insect exoskeletons, spider webs and crustacean shells.
Around the world governments are starting to act more consistently, with the British Prime Minister looking at eliminating all avoidable plastic waste in 25 years. 25 years maybe too long, but it is a start. In southern Europe Italy, France and Spain have joined the “Blue Flag” campaign to clean up their beaches, rivers and lakes and reduce plastic pollution in their environment. When an area becomes pristine again it is certified by the UNESCO and the UNWTO-recognised Danish organization FEE (Federation for Environmental Education). The certification provides not only a win for the environment and the local population, but for the traveller who can enjoy nature at its best. Certainly government action is essential worldwide, but we must add our voices and actions to ensure that we leave this extraordinary planet better than we found it I hope you enjoy the stories in this edition of Fellow Traveller and find stimulation for your future travels. Best wishes Lucia O'Connell
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