Es Importante Reciclar
FYI: Given the unreliable internet situation, Lila and I have decided to split up blogging responsibilities so that our entries do not overlap. To read about our experience in its entirety, visit ecuador.blogs.rice.edu. Thanks for reading!
This weekend was also successful in terms of my project. In Planchaloma, Lila and I noticed that there are plastic bottles, wrappers, cutlery and bags strewn all over: in the streets, bushes, pig pens and fields. Also, since there is no garbage truck that comes by to pick up the trash in the area, so the promoters at the clinic throw all the trash in a large hole in the back of the clinic and burn it. I thought this would be a good time to practice what we preach, so I decided to start a recycling system in the clinic in Planchaloma, and eventually one in Yatzaputzan.
The night before we left Quito, Maria Alicia brought me to MegaKvwi, where I was able to buy 6 large recycling bins to put in the clinics. The bins are absolutely perfect and were just what I was looking for. Since there are no recycling trucks that come by the community and it would be too costly to get a company in an near-by town to come pick it up, I settled on an alternative mode of transportation. I found a recycling company in Quito that will buy the recycled glass, plastic and paper. Since Maria Alicia visits the clinics very often, once or twice a month, she agreed to pick up the bags of recycled items when she visits, bring them back with her to Quito, and sell them to the recycling company. She has also told me that she feels very strongly about recycling and will make sure that the clinic’s members are indeed using the system that we have set up for them. On Wednesday, I set up the bins in the clinic and Marta, the health promoter, and both Lorena and Monica thought they looked very nice and all thanked me for starting such a simple system that will benefit the community and environment in the long run. Each of the bins are conveniently labeled with a list of what items should be put in them. However, today Lila and I remembered being told that some of the people who come into the clinic can’t read Spanish or even Quichua. So I placed signs above each of the bins with pictures of what should be recycled into that particular bin. I officially recycled the first items yesterday: a Mac&Cheese box and a jam jar (this should speak volumes about our diet here…).
Marta and I and the clinic´s new recycling bins
However, I feel that setting up the bins and transportation of the recyclables is not enough. I really want to find a safer way for the clinic to dispose of their trash. Such a large fire so close to the clinic can never be good. And after several years, the trash will eventually begin to pile up. Of course, all they have to do is dig a new hole, but that would make the back of the clinic a kind of landfill. Maria Alicia said trash disposal here is a complicated matter, but I am still working to find a safer and convenient way for the clinic to get rid of their trash.