Waterbottles

I remember two moments in Bangkok...
We're here in the middle of the hot season, and I did not expect the amount of water I would be drinking. Fortunately you can buy water bottles not only at every street corner, but almost at every other store. Plastic bottles, as to say, half a liter or one liter, and I have no idea what's going to happen to this hugh amount of plastic, I'm sure there's nothing what we call recycling on a larger scale. As I was wandering through a park, I was looking around for a litter bin where I could get rid of my empty bottle. I passed some public fountains (or is "well" the better word in english?) where someone was washing his face and watching me. He probably sensed what I was looking for and asked me for that bottle, which I readily gave him... thin plastic, which I had crushed already...
Later in the evening, sitting next to the train and waiting for departure, a man with a black plastic bag was going from one litter bin to the next, searching for whatever could be useful (a familiar sight not only in the so-called second and third world, but also for example in Barcelona). I hadn't finished yet my water bottle and almost "regretted" it, hoping for this guy to come back... five minutes later he really showed up again and pointed to my now empty bottle. I was almost happy to not have to throw it away...
I know, the ecological impact of this incident is not "next to nothing", it's "nothing"... still...