Wide scale pollution has turned some of the world's most beautiful beaches into trash heaps.
From Hawaii's Kamilo Beach — which is so littered by man-made debris that it earned the nickname "Plastic Beach"— to Henderson Island, a remote, uninhabited island in the South Pacific whose beaches are some of the dirtiest on Earth, these former sandy paradises now resemble garbage dumps.
Looking at studies from different nonprofits, organizations, and researchers, we found 13 of the dirtiest beaches in the world.
Kamilo Beach, Hawaii, United States
Kamilo Beach, also known as "Plastic Beach," is one of the dirtiest places on the planet. Located in a rural area of Hawaii's Big Island, Kamilo is a wasteland of plastic debris. In fact, thousands of pounds of man-made detritus, ranging from hair brushes to water bottles, wash up every year. Some of the waste is carried from as far away as Japan and Russia.
One reason why this beach is so polluted is due to its proximity to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a high-pressure area that traps ocean debris. It was discovered in 1997 by oceanographer and boat captain Charles J. Moore. Contrary to what many people imagine, the majority of the garbage is so small that it's not immediately visible to the naked eye.
Guanabara Bay Beaches, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Rio's notoriously polluted Guanabara Bay gained media attention before and during the 2016 Summer Olympics, when athletes competing in events like sailing and rowing were exposed to its mucky waters.
According to an investigation conducted by the Associated Press, the bay water "contained dangerously high levels of viruses and bacteria from human sewage." Athletes who ingested as little as three teaspoons of the polluted water faced a 99% chance of infection.
El Gringo Beach, Bajos de Haina, Dominican Republic
Pure Earth — a New York-based nonprofit formerly known as the Blacksmith Institute that aims to identify and clean up polluted sites around the world — once designated Bajos de Haina as one of the most polluted places on Earth.
Nicknamed "Dominican Chernobyl," the city outside El Gringo Beach is filled with chemical and pharmaceutical plants — not to mention an oil refinery. The Inter Press Service news agency reports that these factories emit high quantities of toxic substances including formaldehyde, lead, ammonium, and sulfuric acid each year. In addition to releasing airborne toxins, local factories are also said to dispose of waste by dumping it into the water.
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