This morning while heading into work, we dumped our garbage. Driven by our protected areas manager, Nat, two other volunteers and I assisted in the process by tossing bags and crates of rubbish on top of one of many exposed piles of trash along a road off the highway. Nat, jaded by his time in Belize and his many trips to the dump, heckled us as we inched closer to the piles to examine what had been disposed of: half-broken TVs, Coke bottles, religious paraphernalia, propaganda, and trophies. As Matt knelt down to inspect more closely the discarded propaganda, Nat brought us back to reality by calling out to him, “Don’t get your reading material from the dump.”
I am by no means a heavy consumer – living on the $0 wage of a volunteer, my oatmeal, beans and rice are all bought in bulk. But seeing one of my used cans of refried beans being chucked into a pile of rotting garbage, I instantly was compelled to consume nothing whose packaging was not biodegradable. This, of course, is an outlandish claim to make, something that cannot be reasonably, or sanely, upheld. But it speaks to the root of my primary struggle – striking a balance between conservation and being a mere mortal.
Belize, like many Central American countries, has no nationally implemented solid waste management system. Household trash is usually burned or taken to a nearby open-air dumping place. Batteries are tossed in rivers, and pristine landscapes are littered with plastic bags and Belikin bottles. If I pick up one piece of garbage and bring it back to our garbage can, where will that can be dumped?
In our efforts to reduce our contribution to the rubbish problem, Ya’axché has conducted composting trainings in many surrounding villages, instructing community members on how to reuse their waste. As part of a marketing campaign for organic vegetables in the area, we are giving away reusable, canvas bags to each customer who buys more than $5BZD ($2.50 US) of organic vegetables at our market booth. A new project is underway that will bring inland villagers on day-trips to the coastal reef, as a way to illustrate how interconnected the water system is and where the garbage may end up. These actions may seem small in the beginning, but hopefully they’ll lead to a greater consciousness of consumption and disposal.
Any other grand ideas for a country that lacks solid waste management?
For more information on the conservation strategies implemented by Ya’axché Conservation Trust, check out our website at www.yct.bz. Interested in more creative solutions by other volunteers? Check out these entries: All-Female Transport in Mexico, It All Started with Our Apple IIGS…, and When Microenergy and Microfinance Meet.
