| Recyclaje- What to do with all the plastic? |
One issue I'd like to tackle is plastic waste. A lot has changed since my years in Ecuador, Bolivia, Bangladesh, Liberia etc. One of the most visible changes is the quantity of litter everywhere. Plastic bags and bottles account for a big percentage of the waste and undermines tourism, public health, safety, quality of life, and odor to name a few. This problem was evident in Costa Rica in 1979. They were leading most of Latin American in economic prosperity, one result of which was a lot of post-consumer waste. I understand they have developed solid waste management systems since then. Like a lot of public health problems, Public trash containers are relatively rare, often malfunctioning and as a result are mostly ignored. Private property is the responsibility of the owner, whereas public property is of less determinate responsibility. Behavior is very problematic. The explosion of cheap plastic has not been accompanied by changes in practices about package handling. Consumers discard plastic containers as soon as they have used the product, typically throwing the container on the ground, out the window of moving vehicles and surprisingly even on the floor in their homes. There are no penalties for small scale littering. To manage the waste that accumulates daily, most families are diligent about sweeping inside and in front of their houses every morning, but only their private property. Trash collects in public places, vacant lots, drainage systems, natural water bodies and ultimately the ocean and beaches with only sporadic cleaning. Aracataca has a functioning trash collection system. Waste of all sorts is mixed, bagged and taken to a nearby landfill. Recycling is not permitted once trash goes into the solid waste stream. The land fill is filling too quickly, a problem common wherever landfills are used, and a lot of waste is missed in the collection process. The plastic waste problem is so big that I'm afraid every idea I have is old news and has been dismissed. The alternatives, many of which are practiced to some extent include:
I was intrigued to find several recycling operations in Fundación, each tending to focus on one waste stream, metal, paper and cardboard, and plastic. Metal, as in Aracataca is by far the highest value. Metal is separated by type, with copper and aluminum having higher values than steel and iron. Metal flattened and is sold by the pound (or ton) to businesses outside of this region. Much of this is shipped overseas.
Cardboard and paper are very low value, but one business in Fundación does mostly cardboard, which they stack, bundle and ship to Barranquilla or other cities. The largest facility was recycling plastic, primarily broken lawn chairs, buckets and other large pieces. A team of six or so men worked in common space with sharp machetes sorting plastic by color and type, then cutting the larger pieces down with sharp machetes. The smaller bits were sent through a grinder to further flatten pieces to roughly 8” x 8” squares for shipping. Plastic is sent to larger cities and some of it overseas for down cycling. There are no buyers in this region. I did not see any glass recycling, but glass products have become relatively rare. In many cases glass bottles that were replaced by plastic bottles and now replaced by plastic bags. A 10 ounce bottle of water costs about 50 cents here, but a comparable bag of water costs 10 cents. Beer and some soft drinks are still sold in glass, and many of these are re-used.
A downcycling program for bottles and plastic bags might do more to extend the value of plastic and create more employment. Transportation cost is often greater than the value of the plastic being sent for recycling, so there is some argument for finding small scale technology for re-using materials on site, but most production systems are very large scale. I'm also not sure one can build a facility here because of the limited sewage treatment capacity. I need to meet with public works to get the full picture. I think we have enough water, but not very good waste water treatment. There are big scale systems for combining plastic waste into construction material which are very attractive. You can see desktop demonstrations using #2 HDPE milkjugs and caps, such as: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUR6_bQLU-E. I’m interested in trying that. I’m curious if we can find a scale that is not big, but is efficient enough to break even. Energy looks like a major obstacle, though solar power here should be very reliable. The rice mill may have some surplus heat and the palm oil industry has a fair amount of burnable waste that is impregnated with palm oil. Controlling temperature is a challenge in that case. There have been and continue to be government efforts to reduce littering, encourage recycling and use of sanitary land-fills. These efforts have had mixed results. The outgoing Mayor Trufith Hatum launched a very broad-based effort at the start of his termin 2012 called Aracataca Clean and Healthy. There were a number of well publicized spot-clean-up efforts and I think significant efforts were made to improve the land fill. There are few residuals fromthat effort now. A recent household universal waste collection was held in Aractaca through a partnership of CORPAMAG, INTERASEO and the Municipality. Oddly it was placed well out of town at Vuelta de Torito. The bulletin put it in the "Nueva Plaza de Mercado" which is a shell of a building that was never completed and surrounded by barbed wire. They moved the collection twice in two days, but probably received next to nothing given the changes of venue and lack of public awareness. Perhaps next time... |
this one is fueled by environmental and behavioral or life style factors. The environment is that of an urbanizing, consumer driven economy in which purchases are made frequently, in small quantities from shops that offer thin plastic bags as a means of conveyance. Beverages are sold in non-returnable plastic bottles and at a lower cost in plastic bags. 
Of these options the two that are already operational are downcycling and landfills. 
Much of the trash eventually makes it to a landfill, though the practice of throwing it down on the street and sweeping it up the next day leaves a lot of trash in public and natural spaces. An educational campaign, better functioning public waste receptacles and penalties for littering could tighten-up the system significantly. I’d like to dust off my social marketing background to see whether we can do something with radio, posters and school-based programs to start the long-term process of educating for change. I’d also like to see what can be done to repair municipal trash containers. Many would work with minor repairs. If littering is the only easy choice, people will continue to litter. 