Spotter's Guide to Pulau Semaku Island
Garbage of Eden
Garbage of Eden Want to be at one with nature? Take a stroll around Singapore’s island of trash. By Eric Bland SINGAPORE’S only landfill is a 20-minute ferry ride south from the main island. On Pulau Semakau, coconut trees and banyan bushes line an asphalt road. Wide-bladed grass, short and soft, forms a threadbare [1] carpet. The only visible trash is a bit of driftwood on the rocky shore, marking high tide in an artificial bay. Water rushes out of the bay through a small opening, making waves in the Singapore Strait. The smell of rain is in the air. You would never know that all the trash from Singapore’s 4.4 million residents is being dumped here 24 hours a day, seven days a week – as it will be for the next 40 years. This is no ordinary landfill: the island doubles as a biodiversity hotspot, of all things, attracting rare species of plants and animals. It even attracts ecotourists on specially arranged guided tours. Eight years in the making, the artificial island i...
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