Old video from Guatemala falsely shared as plastic pollution in India

This video shows plastic waste washing up on the shores of the Motagua River in Guatemala in 2022. 

A video of large heaps of plastic waste floating on water is going viral on social media with the claim that the visual is from India. The caption of the post states that, “Meanwhile in India. At the same time, we are forced to pay ever increasing carbon taxes and are banned from using plastic straws”.

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The same video is going viral on Facebook as well.

Fact Check- 

We started our investigation with a reverse image search on one of the video’s key frames and the results led us to a similar video shared by the Twitter handle of CBS News on 22 June, 2022. According to the media outlet, the video shows plastic waste washing up on the shores of the Motagua River in Guatemala. 

The caption states that “Mounds of plastic waste lapped onto the Caribbean shores of Guatemala from the Rio Motagua, considered one of the most polluted rivers in the world, according to environmentalists”.

Moving forward, we found that the same video was uploaded on the YouTube channel of The Scottish Sun on 23 June, 2022, titled ‘Shocking footage of plastic washing up on the beach of Guatemala.’ The channel also stated that footage was captured by Florida-based environmental organisation 4Ocean on 7 June, 2022.

A Reuters report published on 9 June, 2022, featuring several other visuals of the Rio Motagua, including images of heaps of plastic waste. It mentioned that plastic bottles and mounds of trash lap onto the shores of a once pristine beach in a Honduran fishing village. It comes from neighbouring Guatemala, carried down from a heavily polluted river. Guatemala’s Rio Motagua runs from the edge of the country’s capital, Guatemala City, out to the Caribbean Sea. What once was a roaring river slows to a trickle in some areas, choked by trash.

Based on these evidences, we can say that the viral video of large heaps of plastic waste floating on water is not from India.

Conclusion- 

Fact Crescendo found the claim made along with the viral video to be False. This video shows plastic waste washing up on the shores of the Motagua River in Guatemala in 2022. It has no link to India.