Each year, I come out to our place in the high plains in Colorado and pick up the trash dumped in this pristine environment. Next season I come back, and it’s back. Our country is pretty enlightened about trash disposal. When people toss their trash from their cars, it’s not because they don’t have anywhere else to put it. It’s because they don’t care that they are taking away from the scenic beauty and putting wildlife at risk. That’s both an educational and penalty issue.
In developing parts of the world, more often the problem is the lack of safe disposal sites for trash. In some villages in Africa we’ve visited, a hole is dug to get clay for pottery, and it becomes the new town landfill. But also in the most remote areas, there is no plastic trash to dispose of. They have no access to it.
In other areas, particularly near waterways, access to plastic bags is plentiful, but access to trash disposal is not. People are trying to subsist and are not thinking about trashing their world. They are thinking about surviving it. Where in our priorities is reduction of non-biodegradable trash and containment of vermin-attracting dumps? My friend Sue took this picture of plastic bag litter in Siem Reap, Cambodia, jumping-off place for the famed Angkor Wat. People travel from all over the world to see these fabled temples, but they don’t come to see this. More to the point, the people living there should have a better, healthier environment. How do we make that happen, and become catalysts for change—all over the world?
Become informed. Visit some of the following websites and get involved:
www.commondreams.org
www.bagsmart.com.au
http://plasticbags.planetark.org
In developing parts of the world, more often the problem is the lack of safe disposal sites for trash. In some villages in Africa we’ve visited, a hole is dug to get clay for pottery, and it becomes the new town landfill. But also in the most remote areas, there is no plastic trash to dispose of. They have no access to it.
In other areas, particularly near waterways, access to plastic bags is plentiful, but access to trash disposal is not. People are trying to subsist and are not thinking about trashing their world. They are thinking about surviving it. Where in our priorities is reduction of non-biodegradable trash and containment of vermin-attracting dumps? My friend Sue took this picture of plastic bag litter in Siem Reap, Cambodia, jumping-off place for the famed Angkor Wat. People travel from all over the world to see these fabled temples, but they don’t come to see this. More to the point, the people living there should have a better, healthier environment. How do we make that happen, and become catalysts for change—all over the world?
Become informed. Visit some of the following websites and get involved:
www.commondreams.org
www.bagsmart.com.au
http://plasticbags.planetark.org
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