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Trash on Trash on Trash

12/23/2013

3 Comments

 
The day I got back to school everyone asked me in passing, “How was Haiti!? How was Haiti!?” I quickly realized how difficult that question was to answer. I still have not found a way to sum it up in a few words. I felt that if I had simply said, “Oh it was great,” that would discount the struggle and development that I saw there on a daily basis. If I had said something along the lines of “It was different,” or, “It was hard,” that would discount the beauty and the liveliness. Haiti is beautiful, it is inspiring, it is developing, and in many areas it is challenged, but it is nothing that someone could sum up in a few words as they pass a friend in the hallway.

The beauty in some parts of Haiti can hide behind the mounds of trash that line the streets. When I arrived in Port au Prince, I saw the most trash I have ever seen in one city. I immediately thought, ‘Wow, Port-au-Prince has a trash problem,’ but the more I let it roll around in my mind, I began to think about my own country and its waste. Surely we create just as much, if not more trash than Haiti. Just because it does not all live in our streets does not mean it is disappearing. So I did a little research as to what the US ultimately does with their trash. It is common knowledge that a good amount of trash goes into landfills, but what about the rest of it? According to Onearth.org, “In 2012, scrap was the nation’s No. 2 export to China.” The USA loads 50 to 75 percent of the recyclable material from curbside pickup onto ships and sells it to other countries. Most countries will not make a fuss if each bail of ‘recyclable materials’ that we sell them is comprised of about 40 percent non-recyclable materials. Even though every piece of non-recyclable trash that we sell to them costs them money, we take full advantage of this sneaky trade. Other countries are literally buying our problems at a cost to themselves. This means that the USA has both physical and political garbage issues. Just because Haiti’s trash issues are easily visible, does not mean Haiti is less responsible, or more wasteful than the USA; it just means the USA is better at putting trash out of sight and out of mind. Haiti was an enlightening trip because it not only expanded my world views, but also it provoked thoughts and questions about my own country.

I have a few other thoughts on politics, gay rights, and restaurant service, but I’ll save them for later.



Royte, Elizabeth. "China's Too Good for Our Trash. Yay? |         OnEarth Magazine." China's Too Good for Our                   Trash. Yay? | OnEarth Magazine. Onearth, 23 Oct.   
        2013. Web. 23 Dec. 2013.
3 Comments
Reed
1/5/2014 12:18:13 am

What would your ideal trash management solution be?

Reply
Aidan Sulivan
1/7/2014 10:24:51 am

Sorry for the slow response Reed. I have been trying to find the perfect answer to your question but I think that the perfect answer is going to take a while to find.

Many agree that humans produce an immense amount of trash but because we lack an alternative, we try to not to think about it too much. The more we talk about the issue and the more research we do, the more conscientious we become of our own wasteful habits. Simple things, like plastic bags, add to the landfill every day. Plastic bags take up 9 to 12 percent of landfill space. The USA uses about 100 billion plastic bags every year. If we just familiarize ourselves with the issue a little more, we might be more prone to think of the waste we create. We can buy less prepackaged foods. We can wash Ziploc bags for multiple uses. We can use cloth napkins and cloth grocery bags. There are many little things in my daily routine that I am changing, but the first step was becoming aware of how necessary the change is.

sources: https://www.ncga.coop/newsroom/paper-or-plastic
http://www.statisticbrain.com/plastic-bag-statistics/

Reply
kelly Sullivan link
1/7/2014 11:24:19 pm

I think that was the "perfect" answer Aidan. I will bring more reusable bags to the store from now on, and work harder to leave a lighter footprint. Nice post.

Reply



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