Waste disposal

We have a cleaner who comes to the house three times a week who we were asked to take on, as our neighbour was moving back to Kenya, and as we had considered employing one anyway it was mutually convenient. Her name is Lemika, and her English is about the same as my Swahili, so we use a lot of sign language, gesticulating, and laughter! Sadly her mother passed away last week from cancer, and so I was very grateful to friends who were able to compose a text message in Swahili for me to explain that she didn’t need to come in but would get paid anyway, which seems to be appropriate and I hope relieve some anxiety she might feel. The reason I am telling you this is because I was left with the issue of disposing of our rubbish. We don’t generate much rubbish I’m pleased to say: I’m referring to kitchen rubbish consisting mainly of food such as peelings, paper napkins, and paper used to write on: that kind of thing. Now I realise even this could be reduced! But as I referred to in an earlier post, I see that my needs are changing, and we can adapt even more all the time. But we do have a waste bin in the kitchen and it does need emptying every couple of days even if it’s not full, otherwise the ants have a field day.

In gardens, by the roadside: everywhere there are patches of blackened earth where there has been a small bonfire. It is not unusual to smell burning in the air. There are ubiquitous towers of smoke rising in areas across the landscape easily visible when walking around town or on the way to the college. This is waste disposal in Tanzania. There are no collections for your rubbish: no separating of plastic, cardboard, glass, food and non-recyclable into containers that are collected weekly, fortnightly or monthly. Our cleaner takes our rubbish out to the garden and burns it. That is the solution.

Our garden is not the tidiest of gardens. I have to say that I have not been motivated to clear it, and it’s not that I don’t like gardening because I do find it relaxing and a satisfying thing to do! I think, on reflection, it’s because I didn’t like the idea of burning all the debris that is out there. I am not referring just to plant debris: there is what seems to be a broken shelf unit together with many bottles (plastic and glass), and a couple of things which are mine I see there that have been taken by the cleaner to burn which have rolled to the side and haven’t yet burnt: namely a deodorant can, bought by me before I thought about what might happen to the empty container....

 

So on a positive note, there is plenty of dried plant debris that can be used for a bonfire! I kept the deodorant can to one side (and it can stay there until I find out what I can do with it!) and proceeded to make a bonfire upon which I could empty our rubbish, trying not to douse the flames with the rotting veg so I had to spread that out a bit. When Juanito is back hopefully we can find a suitable spot for a compost pile. And most of it burnt! Success! It stung the eyes a bit even though I tried to stay upwind, and I’m not sure of the vegetation which contributed the dried leaves but it smelt nice ;-)

But since having to burn the rubbish, it made me think even more of how much we throw away.  When I lived in London I would go to the huge Ikea store just inside the north circular near the M11: I think it’s in Edmonton. On the way from Tottenham Hale to this huge Ikea you have to pass a landfill site, and it’s just disgusting. As is every single other landfill site that exists. Anyone who passes or has passed one (or is unfortunate to live near one) knows the smell, and the sound and nuisance of the seagulls and birds that live off it. We talk about ‘reduce, reuse and recycle’; my bachelors’ degree is in Environmental Social Science; and yet it was only when I had to physically dispose of our rubbish myself that I actually really thought down to the smallest detail about what we waste.