On the trail of tourist trash (3 tons of it) in the White Desert

Seattle Times (Andrew Stelzer)

This article made me feel very cold. The White Desert is a remarkable place and I was only talking with a group of people the other day about the benefits or otherwise that tourism would have in terms of its total impact on the oases in the vicinity of the White Desert and on the White Desert itself. Three tons of rubbish was far more horrific than I had speculated upon. There have often been critical comments about the way in which Egypt manages her heritage, but here we have a case of the boot being firmly on the other foot, and it dismays me utterly that as visitors any of us should treat this very special place with such disrespect.

For the Bedouins who live here, it's as normal as riding a camel. For everyone else, it seems a little crazy to head out into the desert, in the middle of western Egypt, to walk around in 115-degree heat. And scan the sand for garbage. It's not for everyone, but this past May, about 150 people spent a week doing just that, in what's become an annual cleanup to counteract the trail of trash that 80,000 tourists leave behind each year.

I had never been to what's called the White Desert; in fact, I had never been to Egypt until I arrived in the capital of Cairo, the staging area for our adventure.

The next day, a six-hour van ride brought us into a vast sea of sand, seemingly empty except for its curious eruptions of white rock, scattered around like so many Martian toys. A twisted pillar over here, a giant mushroom shape over there. Surely, some speculated, people who come to this place must be environmental types. They wouldn't be chucking a lot of litter everywhere.

Two days later, we compared notes on some of the junk we'd found buried in the sand. The most unusual was definitely the fishing twine, but also on the list were a couple pairs of pants, one Birkenstock, a set of plastic silverware, a broken watch, a few used condoms and a toothbrush.

My finds: lots of cans and bottles, including some that once contained British pear cider, several packs of cheese from Greenland, a bunch of cigarette cartons ("Cleopatra" being the favored brand in Egypt) and an endless stream of toilet paper.

See the above page for the full story.