Blogger Shares Grim Reality Of “Bucket List” Travel Destination On Instagram

A blogger has unveiled the grim truth behind one of the world’s most famous beaches in an Instagram post that’s going viral.

Travel blogger Amelia Whelan AKA Salt, Sand & Smoothies shared a photo from a beach in Bali, Indonesia, to highlight the damage plastic is really doing to our environment and some of the world’s most beautiful locations.

She wrote;

‘This is Bali. This is the Philippines. This is Asia. This is Indonesia. This is Hawaii. This is the real sh*t that you don’t see on your newsfeed.
This is the beach right outside the popular tourist destination you and your friends have had on your bucket list for years.

‘This is the beach right next to the famous surf break you’ve always dreamed of paddling out at. This is the beach around the corner from the cute hipster cafe that sells those fancy açaí bowls you’ve always wanted to try.

‘This is the beach directly below the beautiful infinity pool you’ve always wanted to take a photo in. This is the beach our children will grow up on. This is the beach I’ll grow up on. This is the beach today.

‘This is merely a minuscule fraction of the devastation. If you gain anything from this page or my content on social media, please let it be this – Collectively, we must make a change. Immediately. The most effective way to do this, is to change the way you live first. No one is perfect. I am not perfect. But we can strive to improve our actions each day.

The post has been liked almost 20,000 times with users flooding to comment on the devastation of plastic pollution.

One commenter wrote ‘This breaks my heart and I was able to witness it when I was in Thailand. It’s awful and definitely opened my eyes’ while another added ‘I’ve been traveling around SE Asia for the past 7 months and all the trash I’ve seen has been breaking my heart. We all need to step up and stand together to make a change’

Since plastic was introduced in the 1950s, over 8.3 Billion Metric Tonnes of it have been produced, with 91% of plastic not recycled.

Over 500 million plastic straws are used every day in the states, with 200 million single-use plastic bags used worldwide daily.

Earlier this year, the EU announced a series of measures that would ban single use non-recyclable plastic by 2030.

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