February 2, 2002
Thoughts on Trash, Toys, and Recycling African Style
Looks like my trash collection program started a new business in Taabo... trash picking! I know for sure my trash is picked through... I take it out in plastic grocery sacks, and the next day, there's no sack in the trash can... just the trash. I suspect other things are taken too, but I haven't dug through the smelly trash can to be certain!
I'm the classic American living in West Africa... I create more trash than my neighbors... especially non-biodegradable trash. I am the only person in my neighborhood who consistently uses canned or boxed foods. My tomato sauce comes from a can... they make theirs from scratch. They don't even use canned tomato paste! My chili comes from a can... well... they don't eat chili. Canned corn? Not for my neighbors! If they can't get it fresh in the market, they don't eat it.
Fortunately, my neighbors know there are lots of uses for the things I throw away. For example:
Cans, boxes, toilet paper rolls - I save these for the kids in the neighborhood. They play house using the cans for cooking, or they build cities with the cans and boxes as buildings.
Jars - The girl next door swipes all my jars and sells them to the women in the market. They refill the jars and sell dried pepper or spices from them.
Paper - If it's only written on one side, the kids in the neighborhood will draw or do homework on the clean side. If both sides are used, the girl next door sells them to the women in the market. They wrap bread or clothing in the paper so it doesn't get dirty as you carry it home. Paper written on both sides can also be used for paper airplanes.
Magazines - These are much too pretty to throw out, according to the kids next door. First I give them to people who want to practice their English reading. After that, the kids next door take them and look at the pictures. A long time later, the pages are sold to the women in the market, as described above.
Plastic Grocery Sacks - The woman next door is always happy to have them, but I have no idea what she uses them for. I never see them again.
Food Waste - I throw this outside for the goats and chickens who pass through my yard all day looking for food.
Plastic Bottles - Mostly, I refill my water bottles with filtered water and use them over and over again. But other water bottles are used in the market to sell juices. Bleach bottles are used to hold soaps and other non-consumables. Vegetable oil bottles are refilled with vegetable oil. The boutiques have a big barrel of oil for refilling.
Funny Stuff - The kids next door use my empty Wet Ones container as a thermos to take water to school (yes, it leaks terribly!). Broken flip flops are sold back to a vendor who repairs them somehow. He trades you one plastic cup or bowl for each pair of flip flops you turn in. I broke the handle off a knife... the woman next door uses the knife without the handle, and the kids use the handle as a pretend gun (I'm thrilled...).
Other Stuff - Used pens, broken anything, used batteries, candles - All these can be used. I broke a small portable fan...it is now a necklace for the boy next door. Used pens can be excellent diggers for the dirt. Used batteries... well, what's your definition of used? To the family next door, there's always just a little more life in them. The ends of candles and be melted into new candles.
The only things that make it to the landfill without being reused are little scraps of paper (I've learned to shred anything I don't want to see being reused at the market), cotton balls, and egg shells! Talk about reduce, reuse, recycle... these people have taught me a thing or two about reusing things!
About the only things that are not used beyond all recognition are small plastic sacks and candy wrappers. The plastic sacks are very popular for selling detergent (single use size) and portable drinks of water (about 6 oz.). These sacks and wrappers absolutely litter the streets. They are everywhere. Out of habit, people just fling the plastic on the ground... even if there is a trash can within two feet of them. When I give kids gum, if I don't remind them to use the trash can, they will just drop the wrappers at my back door. I have seen people do the same thing in boutiques! This is simply a bad habit that everyone is in... there's no malice or thought in it at all. I hope that over time, this habit can be changed. You would not believe the amounts of wrappers lying along all the streets in Cote d'Ivoire. It's terrible.
I am pretty unhappy with the manufacturers who have introduced so much plastic into the developing world. These are people who have been reusing and/or burning their trash for centuries. But with the introduction of plastics, which don't burn and don't disintegrate, there is a much greater trash problem than there might be. How about sending us little refillable plastic bottles for the drinking water? Or paper envelopes for the single use detergent? At least those would disintegrate.
Sometimes we create our own problems.