In Australia I was reminded again of the overwhelming number of huge garbage receptacles each house hold is issued with, by local councils. Why do they have to be so huge? It seems to encourage large volumes of waste. I kept thinking and not for the first time, “Why can’t there be community spaces that house them for several households to share especially in the city precincts and why are people not more aware of the huge quantities of packaging products are sold in?”
For rural or isolated areas the issue is different. I concede that.
It also struck me that people become complacent. I recycle and I sort so I’m not the problem. But how well do we sort? How many recyclable or compostable bin loads are contaminated with wrongly placed items and as a consequence none of it can be efficiently or effectively dealt with and therefore it all ends up in landfill? When you aren’t sure, do you put it in the recycling bin? That’s the instinct.
That’s when I began to think about developing countries and the role we travellers play in contributing to their massive waste issues. We do live in Cambodia but we have witnessed and commented upon litter issues in many countries over the years. It’s too easy to assume it’s not our problem beyond perhaps modeling better practices.
It occurred to me while we were home that the litter situation in developing countries is in part exacerbated by the complacency of travellers. We all too readily buy bottled water sometimes for want of better options but also through ignorance. Recently we have discovered that there are eco ratings on hotels which tell you if refill water is available. We are opting for these as much as possible now and always travel with refillable bottles. Refill not landfill is worth keeping in mind.
Travellers and expats alike also think nothing of buying iced drinks from drink vendors, just as locals do. These come in plastic cups, with plastic lids and plastic straws and often plastic bags or slings to carry them. All one use plastic. Maybe because we live here we never do and won’t drink in stores that use them either. I completely understand that the compostable alternatives are just not viable for small street-side stalls and mobile vendors. The additional cost would price them out of the market. These shoestring operations have little choice. We have asked vendors to fill our own reusable bottles and they do and are often very amused. We are lucky to know the alternatives that do exist. When you are just passing through you simply may not.
On a brief stay in a foreign country, it’s easy to let standards you can easily adhere to at home slip and the same systematic solutions simply don’t exist. I guess people indulge in behaviors they wouldn’t in their own country because they don’t know what other choices exist.
We too are forced to buy bottled water when we are travelling and resort to buying the greatest volume available as the best option. One large bottle has to be better than five small ones, right? Leave those token gifts of tiny water bottles in hotel rooms unopened, unless it really is an emergency.
This is not to say that locals are guilt free but many behave responsibly. More bins and sorting stations are appearing and are being used and we witness this often. The habit of discarding packaging in public places is common place and was perhaps born in the days when everything was wrapped in banana leaves or similar and therefore presented no threat to the environment. On that note many things here still are.
There is also the habit of burning off all types of garbage, polystyrene included when collection services are unavailable, erratic or inconvenient which is exceedingly worrying.
The further away from the big cities you go the less likely it is that sorting stations and segregated bins have been rolled out. However resources and funding are scarce and there certainly are plenty of other pressing medical, social and economic issues to address.
This is not meant to condemn or judge. It is just the observations and ponderings of someone with a deep concern for the ongoing environmental disaster unfolding on our planet.
