On last year's cruise to the Great Barrier Reef there was one anchorage where I saw a couple of modest sized sailboats take their garbage ashore at low tide and burn it on the beach. There was no metal or glass in the garbage, and at the end just a little pile of ashes. It doesn't bother me they did it. I suspect that's the way sailors have been doing it for a long time, but not sure if its still legal. The issue for a lot of those boats is very limited space, and few visits to towns/marinas.
I recycle wine bottles and beer cans, and cardboard packaging. Annoyingly I have been to marina's that would not take crushed beer cans, only un-crushed ones. Not sure why, but as they weren't taking much space it was easy to keep them on board a bit longer until we got to some place where we could dispose of them.
The bottled water situation is just nuts. Most of the boats that people here own have water tanks. Get the tank in good enough condition to be able to drink the water out of it ! I do have filters on the icemaker supply and drinking water faucet, but I don't really think its necessary. Fill a reusable container for excursions. Its not hard!
Sometime soon there will be a realisation about the energy and resources cost of over-packaging and waste disposal, recycled or not. I'm amazed the 'carbon-police/fanatics' have not already woken up to it. It really is the low-hanging fruit for improving the world we share.
