#municipal dump

[mittieroger]

Photo Friday: Pepenador, recycler @ municipal dump, San Miguel de Allende

Photo Friday: Pepenador, recycler @ municipal dump, San Miguel de Allende by Sean Reagan Photography

[connie-lu-blog]

the municipal dump @ bluefields, nicaragua

Words can't really explain what it felt like to stand at the precipice of this open landfill in Bluefields, Nicaragua.  The photos I am posting here aren't quite sufficient either.  I've been reading about wastepickers through the semester in preparation for the Co-Lab waste management project, but experiencing such a scene in person was more intensely sobering than I had expected.  I felt ashamed snapping photos and tiptoeing among the smoking heaps of soiled plastic, paper, cardboard, metal scraps and feces while women and children sorted through the freshly dumped load. 

Beyond that, I felt ashamed of the life of relative luxury that I live.  Of course, shame alone is not an especially productive reaction, and everyone has a right to enjoy whatever means they have.  But I suppose shame is better than numbness, which is what I have sadly begun to feel, and this time it came with a fiery kick to my motivations.  Lately I have been questioning why I want to work on environmental problems in developing countries when there is plenty of env work to do in the US (not to mention, near my friends), and this morning delivered a stark reminder and welcome renewal of my original motivations.  The barriers to successful waste management in impoverished cities are many, however, and it is hard to know what our team needs to do to beat the odds.  On a more selfish note, in the medium term I don't see myself sacrificing the many perks of life in the US and financial security* to continue working on this type of project. (*yes yes I said it, but I couldn't live with the burden of knowing that I would have to rely on my parents or loans if I stumble the slightist bit.)   But in my dwindling time as a student, I can stay involved in this project without giving up real world responsibility.  So I hope I can do it well, especially since it might be a while before I come back to this kind of work...

Well that was conflicted.  But here's to honesty.  In any case, our team will be blogging on Co-Lab Radio throughout the month of January, and I will definitely be posting more details on this project there if you are interested.