#4 Dumping

This Blog kinda goes with the last one i just posted on waste and the effects of what is really happening in the world. This is Jippijappa’s dump in South America.Jippijappa, a town on the southwest coast of Ecuador with about 18,000 inhabitants is a town that struggles with a common environmental problem across many developing nations, garbage. The disposal service collects any and all garbage from the town daily but unlike many garbage dumps in developed countries, there are no environmental laws prohibiting hazardous materials from entering the dump. In addition, the dump is open to anyone willing to enter through a small dirt road into a smoky wasteland created from the burning plastic, rubber, and paper. Trucks arrive everyday at Jippijappa’s garbage dump where nearby livestock feed on the remains inside. The animals are so intuned to the arrival of the trucks that they gather from miles around every day to eat their daily dose of leftovers. Many of these pigs are later sold at the markets in Jippijappa or nearby towns. The dirt road entrance to the dump runs adjacent to a farm which grows agricultural plants just meters from thousands of plastic bags, bottles, and toxic smoke. Although Jippijappa’s dump is a sad representation of many dumps in South America, the local government’s environmental branch has created a greenhouse where organic waste can be composted and plants can be grown for local schools, parks, and parkways. Starting this past September, trucks are going to certain sectors of the town to collect presorted organic waste for the greenhouse from household waste that would usually be taken to the garbage dump. Items such as plastic two liter bottles are also being recycled in the greenhouse by creating portable growing containers for smaller plants which will later be distributed to any member of the community that asks. Organic waste is also being collected from tree trimmings in local parks and food waste in the local market for the greenhouse project. The greenhouse project is still in its beginning stages of development, but at least it shows a shed of light to other third world countries that they also can make a difference.