Think about trash with dread & confusion

What do you do with trash on an island – a very small island??? In some places in the world a dump is the same size as my whole island.

From my survey I found out that most (practically everyone) just throws their trash in the bush or down a cliff and burns most of it and the rest just piles up. I’m sure my lungs don’t like inhaling burning plastic – not sure what the effects are but they can’t be good. And the batteries, tin cans, and glass are scattered about waiting to injure some little bare-footed kid. These are just little things we also have lots of rusted sheets of corrugated tin for roofs that you need a tetanus shot just from looking at it. And as I’m cleaning and organizing the dispensary I’m troubled by what should I do with the unusable old stretcher circa WWII and other relics from “colonial times” (aka before independence in 1980 from Britain and France, who ruled together in a condominium style government).

In the past some families had trash pits for batteries (which should probably be disposed of in a cement pit but 1 step at a time), glass, plastic and tin cans. But they all are filled up now. So, I hope to give a workshop on sanitation and environmental health and hopefully encourage the communities to make some new pits – they recognize the need but just lack the motivation.

But still what to do with the big junk?

What do we do with junk in America – I guess we too throw it in our equivalent of the “bush”.