Thirty three years after my first visit, I just spend a week in Guate.
That is Guatemala. If you have not made the trip, I strongly suggest you do. Be ready to be totally dazzled by incredible hand stitched fabrics, by colorful fruits and smiling people.
You may wonder: what is the link?
What is the connection between Guatemala, Philadelphia and Sustainability?
Well, beside the tour bus of Filadelfia Tours, there is another connection: TRASH all over, on the side of the roads, in the rivers, in the ditches, everywhere.
Trash is what we, each of us, decides is not worth enough to be individualized and reused. Plastic bags, wrappers, plastic bottles,… most of it being totally recyclable in Philadelphia.
I decided to dig a little deeper with my local friends. Turns out that:
In Guatemala, trash pick up varies considerably from one township, one village to the next one.
OK
Philadelphia has a well organized trash collection system and so do most North American cities. And still, trash abounds if only you care to pay attention.
In Guatemala, infrastructure such as sewers and clean water distribution also depends on each township and village.
Understood.
That is not really comparable to Philadelphia which had one of the first modern water distribution systems on the planet. Still, I would not drink water from the Skukill river.
Whether it is Philadelphia or Guatemala, it is the same trash, same plastic bags, same wrappers, same plastic bottles – only difference is how much of it you will find in anyone spot.
What I do not understand then, is why is there such quantity of perfectly recyclable trash on the roadside of the United States or of Guatemala??
The only conclusion I can come up with is that TRASH is a necessary byproduct of the way the economic system functions, whether it is the US or Guatemala.
In other words, if we want to reverse the pollution of this planet we have to radically change our supply chain and the way we consume and … throw away. Right now, what we discard is an inherent part of what we consume.
Recycling needs to be an integral part of every step and every process of the supply chain. That is a huge task that translates in thousands of new green jobs. Another way to put unemployed Americans and the rest of the planet to work.
