Maybe the land fills are filling up faster than they should or faster than they really should. Mexico doesn't have any kind of recycling programs that I know of, not at least in the Patzcuaro area.
Today I read an article that Mexico City is putting into effect a ban on plastic bags.
Commendable especially when you consider that ever time you look on the side of the road or on the beach you will see the evidence of simply not tossing it out responsibly.
Responsibility?
That is the word that evades the normal family and the cause of so many issues down here that it will be interesting to see the result.
Children are taught from an early age that it is perfectly OK to toss something out the window whether it be a plastic bottle ( or glass) or plastic or paper bags, filled or unfilled.
The sound a sailing plastic Coke one liter bottle makes as it hits your window while, momentarily pausing it's journey to the side of the road is unnerving. , as you attempt to bring the car back into control while you catch a glimpse of the bouncing projectile as it find it's way to the side of the road, wishing that there would be instant payback.
Our road is littered daily with not only plastic bottles and bags, but with cans, empty cartons and various other objects that were once firmly held in someones hand never to see the proper receptacle.
I wonder if the Plastic Police will now be in line to receive instant settlement of their portion of the spread the wealth program.
I don't think it is a problem with plastic bags as much as it is with the general attitude of just litter control and understanding where it ends up and how and what it ultimately impacts.
There is nothing worse than seeing not only plastic bags but all the other stuff routinely fill our landfills and sides of the roads. Our property borders on a local highway, routinely twice or three times a month we have to clean up a full garbage bag of someone else's tossings.....
I guess it's the freedom to do what one wishes?
Well to be fair, I will have to reconsider the recycling issue. Lots of stuff never would reach the recyclers. It would have been morphed into something, since Mexicans never seem to throw away anything with the slightest value, except trash...... There lies the problem!
3 comments:
Actually, Pátzcuaro does have a recycling program, but it´s run so poorly that hardly anybody knows about it.
I believe the anti-litter mentality is something that comes with time. I recall quite clearly back in the 1950s in the U.S., we thought little of tossing empty bottles, whatever, out the car window on the highway. Just did not occur to us that it was a bad idea. Mexico still lives in the 1950s and earlier.
Education seems not to be a priority, especially when it comes to the environment, as a look at the rivulets emptying into the lake.....
I agree with Felipe. This is another time warp issue. The children in Melaque are being taught in school not to litter. I recently saw a group of three boys wandering our neighborhood picking up trash and putting it in a trash barrel. There is hope. Over time.
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