Having been to Guatemala, the culture is to throw most trash on the ground. The trash is then washed into the rivers during heavy rains. It's sad to see. The country has a lot of natural beauty, but there is trash everywhere.
The country lacks any real garbage collection infrastructure. And I'm not just talking about ritzy landfill/recycling/compost bin sets every few hundred feet on the sidewalk, emptied by the municipality, I mean there's literally nowhere for any service to actually take the trash if it was in a bin and not on the ground.
Most cities don't even have a functioning, modern landfill, just clandestine piles served by dump truck. Much of the trash picked up by this effort may have literally already been collected and dumped by a truck in a pile by the river.
There's a big "broken windows" element to the continuation of the problem. It's going to take altruistically motivated, powerful regulators and a lot of money to fix, and neither is not easy to come by in Guatemala.
No Ladybird Johnson like figure driving public policy in the 1960s, melding the hippies and government together?
The TV was inundated with public service announcements shaming trash throwers in the USA for maybe 15 years. It made a difference.
Having seen similar "just throw it on the ground" behavior in India and china, I think that it may be a natural response in a rural culture that needs to be changed once it is in a city and non degrading packaging is used
If there's no refuse collection service, then people dispose of it themselves. In this instance, it makes rational sense for the individual to dispose of refuse continuously/immediately (dump) rather than aggregating it (collect). And if everyone around you is doing that....culture.
on a smaller scale, I've been involved in many outdoor events with large number of attendees. if you put a trash can further apart than every 10', people will think it is too far and choose to not bother. it's one of those weird things seeing the seemingly large number of trash cans placed around before the crowds.
so i can totally see how it would happen if a country just doesn't have the proper infrastructure to start
I have personally witnessed people in the Philippines who live next to the ocean quite literally taking out the trash from their bins, then tossing it directly into the ocean current to be taken away. No functioning garbage collection service there either.
Well, lack of "garbage collection infrastructure" better explains what's going on in SE Asia, India. When there is no such infrastructure, where else people dump?
Octokiddie|1 year ago
LeifCarrotson|1 year ago
Most cities don't even have a functioning, modern landfill, just clandestine piles served by dump truck. Much of the trash picked up by this effort may have literally already been collected and dumped by a truck in a pile by the river.
There's a big "broken windows" element to the continuation of the problem. It's going to take altruistically motivated, powerful regulators and a lot of money to fix, and neither is not easy to come by in Guatemala.
readthenotes1|1 year ago
The TV was inundated with public service announcements shaming trash throwers in the USA for maybe 15 years. It made a difference.
Having seen similar "just throw it on the ground" behavior in India and china, I think that it may be a natural response in a rural culture that needs to be changed once it is in a city and non degrading packaging is used
ropable|1 year ago
dylan604|1 year ago
so i can totally see how it would happen if a country just doesn't have the proper infrastructure to start
wil421|1 year ago
latchkey|1 year ago
aussieguy1234|1 year ago
raincom|1 year ago