There is no recycling here... we are going through plastic water bottles like crazy because we have to drink bottled water (it's unsafe to drink water from the tap). Even now, we can't bring ourselves to throw the bottles away, so we just stack them in the corner of our kitchen counter with the hopes that they will magically recycle themselves! I think we'll break down and throw them away next week.
While many U.S. shops are now charging shoppers to take/use a plastic bag to take away their goods, Zambia doles out the plastic bags like they're going out of style! No wonder there are so many littering the streets and hanging off of branches!
My boss's wife has a ministry to widows and they create beautiful purses made out of plastic bags so that's one good way to recycle... now, what to do with those plastic bottles (if only Patagonia would come get them to make their clothing!!!).
2 comments:
Oh man! I am so used to recyling that would trip me out too. In China in March I couldn't bring myself to toss the bottles either and they ended up in the little area where you hung dry your clothes. Then I started to notice in the evenings these dudes on bikes piled high with stuff like styrofoam and bottles. Who knows where they were taking them. So 3 days before we left- I set them out in a very obvious place near our apartment elevators and they somehow got carted away almost immediately. I hope the dude made some cash off of them :)
This is so funny. It reminds me of when we moved to Bangkok in 1991. Being good Californians, we recycled. So we asked our maid where we took cans for recycling. She thought we wanted the money they would fetch. Not to worry. When we put our trash out that first week, we found there were people who made their living going through our cans for things to recycle.
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