Does a video of a large mass of floating plastic waste show a shoreline in Asia? No, that's not true: The garbage was flowing from a Guatemalan river in Central America, not Asia, and was flowing into the Caribbean. CBS News shared the video in 2022, reporting it was at the mouth of Rio Motagua, which is considered one of the most polluted rivers in the world.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) where it was published by the @RadioGenoa account on X on November 11, 2025. The caption with the video read:
This is Asia. Where is Greta?
This is what the first frame of the video looked like at the time of writing:
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of X.com)
A reverse image search of the first frame of the video found a CBS News post (archived here) on X dated June 22, 2022, that included the same video with this caption:
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.
(Image source: Lead Stories screenshot of X.com)
An environmental group that monitors pollution globally reported (archived here) Rio Motagua collects plastic waste along its winding 486-kilometer route through Guatemala to the Caribbean, with much of the waste coming from Guatemala City.
