Different cultures, different perspectives on what is or isn’t garbage. The other day we heard some crashing sounds on the dirt road in front of our house. We went out to find these guys throwing old refrigerators out of a pickup onto the road. We weren’t happy about that because we thought they were dumping stuff off they didn’t want into the riverbed, which happens often. They said right away that they weren’t junking the fridges, they had just collected them and were breaking them down into smaller pieces so they could fit more in the pick-up truck. Turns out they were right. The one guy takes out a couple of axes and they start chopping them into pieces, then loaded them back onto their truck, and drove away. They were laughing that we thought they were dumping off their newly found treasures. I wonder what they will make with those, but make something they will.
The people here are resourceful, they have to be. I saw one of my friends the other day with a number of large parcels. She said she was mailing them to the states. They were full of purses, coinpurses, beachbags, all made from recycled plastic bags. I don’t know what I was expecting, but they were beautiful! You would never know they were made out of plastic bags. They took various colors of plastic and made tiny braids, then those were woven together. The result were colorful, waterproof bags. Even one small project like this one is helpful in a numerous ways. The women collect plastic bags, which cuts down on the amount of garbage on the streets. Then they have been shown a new marketable skill, and they can make money for their families. My friend asked if I’d donate our plastic bags to this project, which I’m happy to do.
There is a also different attitude here when it comes to repairing broken items. Most things we will simply chuck and buy a new one because it would cost way more to repair. Here it’s the opposite. Take a hairdrier, for instance. My friend’s quit working and she was going to throw it away, but someone said they know a man who can fix just about anything. Turns out there are quite a few men like that around. What they don’t know, they figure out. Many things here are held together with a little bit of wire and the tape of your choice.
While the people here are great at reusing items, once they decide something is garbage, they will dump it just about anywhere, and then may set it on fire. That takes a little getting used to. The other night someone had set a bunch of garbage on fire in the riverbed, not too far from someone’s pickup truck. There is also no stigma attached to littering. When people finish drinking a soda or eating a bag of chips, they will just drop everything on the street as they go.
There isn’t a formal recycling program here, it happens more at the dumping level. First you put your garbage out and people will come along and pick through it. Then the dogs will sort through your stuff. Certain moms and their kids will also look through for any aluminum or plastic bottles. So some recycling happens, just not in an organized manner. This town is still trying to rebuild the sewage treatment plant that was knocked out in 2005 by hurricane Stan, so I doubt organized recycling is around the corner. But that being said, Kier’s senior class in school built a number of composters and put them around town at different large organizations. That was their grassroots effort, and we all know huge change often starts at the roots. I hope their efforts grow.