Soooo…
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
Please
get dirty with me!
I ask
you to give one hour of your time to clean somewhere, preferably a river,
especially if you're traveling where plastic is a problem. Please consider
doing this. You will be amazed at how good it feels to take direct action.
If all travellers, and even tour companies took one hour of time with their
clients for some kind of direct action, think of the impact we could have.
OK not everyone wants to muck around in a river with garbage. But in the end,
the rewards are far greater than the yuck factor.
See my direct action advice
below.
Mushkal
indeed.
I don't have any answers on how to dispose plastic, this is something thats
still being debated and researched by a very few brave and independent
souls. It desperately needs to be made a priority by the same research
and manufacturers that create the stuff. I've been told that when black plastic
is burned, nothing will grow on that soil for years. Yet burning is the only
solution for complete disposal. Sure some plastics can biodegrade or be recycled,
but very few. In a landfill,
plastic can take up to 1,000 years to degrade. The reality is that
new plastics are being created every year, and with no disposal or recycling
in place, we are drowning in the stuff. But
plastic is put there one bag at a time, so I'm not going to let that stop
me from cleaning rivers one plastic bag at a time. Whatever
mushkal you choose, I wish you all the luck in the world.
RESOURCES
DVD
- Addicted to Plastic
available to rent at Rogers and Blockbuster - highly
recommended!
environment
OceanGybe
Project Overview
Island
of Garbage
personal action
Your Banana Grew in a Plastic Bag
toxicity
Toxic Chemicals in Plastic / Oprah
Support for "No to Plastic Bags" in the desert.
want
more?
just google plastic problems
MY TIRELESS HELPER
TAFROUTE
January
15 AM
Feeling a bit nervous this morning, pulling on my old torn trekking pants
and dirty shirt, not sure if I'll be arrested, stoned, laughed at or worse.
As I leave the hotel, I see the usual young guys hanging around with nothing
to do. They ask "where am I going?", so I invite them to come along
and help me clean plastic from the river. We target downstream from the bridge
in the centre of town. With Zaid and Hassan in tow, I climb over the concrete
wall and began picking plastic bags from mud, shrubs, from under rocks and
stuff just plain floating around in the water. The water is shallow and clear,
making it easy to work one side to the other, balancing on rocks where water
runs fast and deep. Zaid is in the café asking the waiters to give
us clean plastic bags to put our collected stuff in, and soon the waiters
begin helping by taking away our full bags for disposal, and giving us encouragement
when they aren't busy. Within a half hour, we have the river completely free
of plastic from about 100 feet down, all the way to the bridge. It looks fantastic!
Zaid and Hassan are very proud too. We have lots of thumbs up from passers
by, and lots of blank stares too. But when invited, no one wants to join us.
One French lady stops to offer her opinion, and wants to know why we aren't
wearing gloves. I invite her to help by going to find some for us, but she
barely hides her disgust and walks off. Ah well, you can only try. Zaid agrees
to meet me after lunch. We'll start by cleaning up river from the bridge.
Hassan has disappeared.
January 15 PM
Up river from the bridge is definitely target zero, I can
see mounds of garbage all along the banks. One side is clearly a dumping ground,
where garbage is burned on a regular basis. There's even a fire pit full of
garbage waiting to be lit. Ironically there are three large green refuse bins
near us right beside the bridge. I watch one man from the market walk right
past the refuse bins and drop a full bag into the river. I stare in disbelief,
but he ignores me with stoney determination, and hobbles off.
Someone
must have told them about the
crazy tourist cleaning plastic from the river.
The river here is full of frogs! Despite one hotel sewer running directly
into the river, the ecosystem seems healthy. One bag hides mating frogs, so
I wonder if I'm destroying valuable cover for them. But then I decide no –
if one was ever caught inside the bag, it would definitely be trapped. Picking
plastic here is like picking fruit. Zaid shows up about 15 minutes later,
and he jumps in with enthusiasm. Together we work upstream for about 100 feet,
encouraged by singing frogs. Then we notice two men working in the river behind
us, cleaning up the garbage we've been ignoring, mainly paper products and
anything metal or glass. Zaid tells me they're city workers, and that someone
must have told them about the crazy tourist cleaning plastic from the river.
We soon have the three refuse bins overflowing. Next a garbage truck arrives
to empty the bins. Hurray! We speak to the driver but he's oblivious to our
work. Zaid told me they only empty the trash once every three days, when they
are supposed to do it every day. I wonder if this was day three, or if someone
is getting the rap because of the crazy tourist. Zaid is really concerned
about this situation, and wants me to go speak with the minister tomorrow.
But I'm thinking I'd rather keep a low profile, and use direct action rather
than talk. I have no solution but to clean up the mess, and really nothing
to say about it, that isn't obvious to anyone with eyes to see. The people
who live here are aware there's a problem and need to find their own solutions.
January 16 AM
Decided to rent a bicycle and ride to some gorges, and stay overnight in the
desert village of Tiwadou. This involves riding over a massive mountain pass.
To me it seemed the equivalent of the Tizi n Test, which is one of the steepest
passes in Morocco. I gave up even trying to ride any part of it, with my small
but heavy pack on my back pulling me down. I left Tafroute at 12:30 which
was a mistake, making me climb the pass in the heat of mid day. After 3 hours
of switchbacks I finally arrive to a village to buy some water and then, on
a flat piece of road, can actually get on the bike to ride. With no traffic,
I pedal free of gravity and tear down the road into the gorge, whooping with
joy at finally being able to fulfill one of my fantasies.
All the children took one school day to clean the river and burn the plastic...
January 16 PM
I arrive in Tiwadou at 6pm, sunset, dusty, sweaty, and very tired. Four others
are also staying in the auberge, doing this same ride over 3 days. We enjoy
hot showers, good music, and food provided by our host Mohamed Sahnoun. Mohamed
is well known for his successful work in his village and I ask him about it.
He tells me how he built a meeting place where the village women are learning
to read and write and look after their own affairs without the intervention
of any man in the village, as no man is allowed to enter. It's very successful.
Then Mohamed also tells me about his newest project, which will be an annual
event cleaning plastic from the nearby river. He pulls out a photo album and
showed me the event he organised last April (2009), where all the children
took one school day to clean the river and burn the plastic, then held a festival
and feast afterward. Needless to say I was very pleased! When I queried why
not target the source of the plastic, he told me the frustration was that
it was coming from upstream, from a gold mine where rich people live only
part of the year. Perhaps someday I will bring a group to join him in April
to target that village near the mine. Yet I worry about heavy metal tailings
that accompany gold mining.
January 17
Back to Tafroute. Most of the road this morning is very rocky, jolting the
palms of my hands so they are bruised, in spite of having shocks on my bike.
I stop to take a few photos of the usual garbage that follows human beings
wherever we may be. My god we're dirty animals! However this thought is soon
dispersed by the gorgeous landscape, riding along on the quiet road all morning
is fantastic once I leave the rocks and ride soft dirt paths winding through
valley oasis. Eventually I join up with the road at the top of the pass, hitch
my pack onto the seat of my bike and launch off. What fun! At the bottom 15
minutes later I'm looking back up the switchbacks I just rode down. 3 hours
up? Cripes how fast was I just going?
The
x!&# must have hit the fan somewhere at
garbage central.
January 18
Sweet day! Having breakfast in the café by the river what do I see?
Two men in the river cleaning up the garbage!! Now a daily event? Even all
the refuse bins are empty. The x!&#
must have hit the fan somewhere at garbage central. Perhaps one crazy tourist's
action has made a difference. Zaid and I feel very happy and encouraged.
January 19
I leave Tafroute today for Agadir. To get there I have to pass through a town
on the Atlantic coast where there is a new factory with a huge sign TIZNIT
PLASTIC. No shyness there. I wonder as we pass, if this is the source
of the blue shopping bags I've recently seen children peddling in the markets
everywhere.
Can one person really change anything?
January 20
Arrive in a mountain town called Imouzzer – Paradise Valley, famous
for its beautiful waterfalls and green fertile valley. Plastic everywhere!
I feel totally deflated after the highs of the previous days. It occurs to
me that with such great quantity in every ravine and every river, there must
be massive amounts entering the ocean
every day, all over this country. This thought is very distressing. Now every
time I
purchase something, I feel disgust when someone
hands me a plastic bag. I take a long walk and try not to feel overwhelmed.
Can one person really change anything?
This evening I'm the only one in the hotel. Aneflous my waiter fusses as I
eat my dinner. I'm feeling too depressed to say much, but he wants company
so I listen to him talk about whatever. He tells me he is the president of
his local association, and aside from the usual women's projects, he is the
local authority about proper disposal of plastic for his community. Hmmmm,
I'm thinking he's not a very effective communicator because Imouzzer is a
mess. But his mission isn't about cleaning up, it's about giving information
to those who ask for it. Aneflous theory is that you have to have the motivation
first, then seek the knowledge to take action. Definitely a different approach,
but perhaps not very effective, and definitely very time consuming. I'm sure
direct action is the only way. By example is the
most obvious way to teach and to reach those who are unable to access information,
especially in a developing country like Morocco where information is not easy
to come by. Anyway he tells me Tiznit Plastic is just a small
offshoot company of one of the big oil companies out of Casablanca, and that
the owners/directors probably all live in Europe so don't even think about
trying to talk to them. But that got me thinking about how great it would
be if Tiznit Plastic could sponsor a cleanup.
I hear the word mushkal over and over.
January 21
I love it when you are open to ideas and they come pouring in! On the TV at
the Agadir bus station I catch the tail end of a news broadcast showing mounds
of garbage. I hear the word mushkal over and over. Mushkal is Arabic
for problem.
SUMMARY
Over the 10 years I've been living and working in Morocco, I've seen plastic
grow from a few bags blowing across the Sahara, to clogged rivers and watersheds
everywhere, from a few bags left by roadsides to huge dumps into riavines
and gorges. In developing countries where information is not readily available
to citizens, it can take governments a long time to develop solutions for
problems. I believe people learn and are encouraged by example. Tourism is
very important in Morocco. As a tourist anyone can make the problem seen and
heard most easily by taking direct action. And I have to add, it feels so
very good to pick up that first bag!
Robbin
Yager
February, 2010
Please get dirty with me.
You'll need some old clothes and a pair of strong rubber gloves to start.
Wear shoes, not sandals as rivers can contain broken glass. Wear sunscreen
and a hat with a brim. It makes it easier to see plastic under water. Don't
try to clean everything. Leave anything biodegradable like paper products,
glass or metal, but do remove batteries. They're full of
heavy metals like arsenic, cadmium and lead. Choose
one big strong bag and fill, leaving room to securely tie it off.
Try to involve someone from the community to help you. In Morocco, lots of
people have nothing to do and want to be working. So just ask. But with a
smile. Maybe even offer some incentive like buying them a tea or coke afterward.
Offering money probably isn't a good idea.
You'll have to make some plans for disposal of your collection. In everytown
in Morocco there is a burning site for plastic, often just a metal circle
sitting somewhere in a field. Ask around. Taking the plastic to a dump site
probably means it will eventually blow off into the land if it isn't burned
soon enough. Smoke from burning plastic is toxic.
Rivers are full of dead things, and live ones too. Don't go into the water
over your knees. Beware of bushes and brush piles. Snakes may be lurking there.
Make lots of noise with a strong stick before cleaning these kinds of sites.
Finally always work with a buddy, never alone. And take some
time to reward yourself at the end of a good day with a visit to the hammam!
Its amazing how
much you can clean in one hour! I considered where to start for several months,
then decided rivers are the best targets. People treat them as sewers,
when really rivers are the most precious natural places because every living
thing must consume water. But plastic cleanup is needed in every kind of environment.
I'd love to hear about your cleanup experiences.
I'll post them on this page...
EMAIL: robbinyager@yahoo.ca
A project of
Morocco Explored Tours & Treks
For more information contact
robbinyager@yahoo.ca
Telephone
inside Morocco:
GSM: 0 66 246 1598
Telephone
Canada and voice mail:
+1 604 393 3715
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TARGET
ZERO BEFORE
THE TAFROUTE BRIDGE
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