Rubbish
on Duncan in the Gambia (The Gambia), 08/Mar/2011 23:49, 34 days ago
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So far in Basse I have produced a box of cardboard, a bag full of plastic and a tin can. And I don’t know what do with them. I’ve found uses for the reasonable size bits of cardboard, apparently the can is quite valuable so I’ve got someone lined up for that, glass bottles are no problem because I can sell them back to the shop for 3 Dalasi (6p) but I’ve no idea what to do with the stuff that’s left.I’ve asked a couple of Gambians who have told me to burn stuff or leave it out on the street. I think I’m gonna burn the cardboard but I cant bring myself to dump the plastic at the side of the road so it’s just building up in that bin liner. Apparently in the rainy season plastic litter gets washed away and seems to end up here:Food waste and other bio-degradable stuff breaks down very quickly here (as I’m sure I would if I was left out in 40 degree sun all day) but the plastic just sits there for - on a human scale at least - forever. This is basically landfill without the ‘fill’. Not having the ‘fill’ means that everyone in the town can see what’s happening to this field as they takea stroll up the Mansajan Highway. But no one seems to care. No one seems to care that brown’ish patch at the bottom of the picture is only going to get bigger and then green’ish patch with the trees in the middle of the picture is only going to get smaller. At least I thought no-one cared but actuallyBig Society- or as it used to be known“society” might come to the rescue! The Gambia is already one step ahead ofBarnet Counciland UK in general with its Big Society rubbish collections. I haven’t actually seen it yet so, like most knowledge I have about the Gambia, all I have is rumour but a couple of people have told me there’s a national community clean-up day on the last weekend of every month so maybe something will happen then… or at least it’ll all get swept into a bit pile and burned. Tune in next week for the next exciting instalment of “what happens to Duncan’s rubbish”.
