Betsy from craftivism wrote in asking for help seeking ideas on ways to recycle trash in a small Guatemalan village – here is the letter – if you can help either leave a comment here or email her betsy[AT]craftivism[.]com
One of the biggest problems regarding health in Guatemala (and other countries) is related to trash. In the villages, to get rid of trash, they burn it, right in the middle of the village, letting dangerous toxic fumes blow right down the main street, not 10 yards from houses, kids, cows.
I’m working on putting together a grant proposal with some ideas of how the villagers could reuse their trash to create something useful. Yes, they could also make stuff and resell it, but unless it can be resold in country, it’s perpetuating Guatemala being dependent on other countries. The money from the grant would go towards making/teaching/testing creations in order to see if the villagers can easily make them …
Given the DIY/craft community’s enthusiasm for reusing materials, what could we come up with that would make life easier in developing countries? From solar power to LED lights to making yarn from plastic bags to reusing plastic bottle … The possibilities are endless! The biggest problem is finding a way to reuse plastic so it can be saved from the town dump. Yes, recycling would be awesome, but not as practical in the middle of nowhere. Water is also an issue as some people have to carry it from a stream in buckets… which I can tell you, are heavy!
So, I’m asking you, lovely craft peeps, to either pass on any links you might have of creative reuse ideas or to pass on the word that I’m looking for them.
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
i saw a great idea using old tires:
the outside part of the tire is cut in the shape of sunflower petals with the inner circle being the center of the sunflower–a piece of wire mesh was stapled in the circle; that is where birdseed is placed. Small chains were attached to hold the sunflower from a stake. The petals were painted yellow
One tire would make two sunflower birdfeeders.
the anthropologie stores in the US are all doing flowers made from bottles:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_2fy2gotuh00/ShDKx4jN3sI/AAAAAAAABe0/dJhhzPtwc1Y/s400/3501198033_f368934d0a.jpg
they are spray-painted then cut apart, i think they probably used heat guns or similar to create the outward curves.
there’s also an artist in south africa working in plastic, heath nash
http://www.heathnash.com/others.php
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&source=hp&q=heath+nash&gbv=2&aq=f&oq=&aqi=
I hope that the recycled section of my blog could offer some useful ideas.
http://hautenature.blogspot.com/search/label/recycled
Sincerely,
Holland
One solution is to burn the trash inside a waste-to-energy setup. Unfortunately, I’m not aware of any existing DIY projects for that. You could research it. Plastic is an ideal material for incineration in waste-to-energy plants due to its high energy content, and if you burn it hot enough the toxins burn instead of being released. However, the hot temperatures needed to burn the toxins might make DIY solutions dangerous and/or difficult to achieve.
If you were going to DIY a waste-to-energy setup, I imagine the main part of the incinerator could be built similarly to a kiln, which would be relatively easy to DIY, but the moving parts (turbine?) might need to be professionally manufactured. Perhaps you could collaborate with any local people who have or are receiving mechanical training.
I think that turnin the plastic items (food bags, grocery bags) into woven bags that can be reused but will use up alot of trash in the process of making them. Simple weaving and knots to hold them together will help to make them easy to make as well as useful.
Here is a link to an artist that creates art from trash http://urban-objects.com/
I liked what Elizabeth had to say…some things need to be disposed of and a high energy burning kiln would be a good idea or something with a filter if it can be enclosed. Some sort of a recycled center would be good too…make plastics into benches for the community,etc. This would, of course, need money/time/know-how.
If most of the items are sorted into recycled and what needs to be burned, it might cut down on air pollution. What sort of things get burned? That would be my other question.
Wow! Thanks so much for these awesome ideas!
As it’s such a GIANT problem, hearing all these different ideas from different people is brilliant!
Thanks so much for posting this, Kathreen, and thank you all for your thoughts!
x
betsy
Buiding houses quickly came to maind:
http://life.gaiam.com/gaiam/p/Garbage-Warrior-Turns-Trash-Into-Houses.html
http://www.intlistings.com/articles/2008/10-amazing-beautiful-houses-built-from-trash/
http://current.com/items/88882713_garbage-warrior-homes-made-of-your-garbage.htm
http://news.softpedia.com/news/The-Houses-Of-Tomorrow-Could-Be-Made-From-Trash-51041.shtml
Musical instruments:
http://www.livescience.com/environment/070402_trash_house.html
http://home.earthlink.net/~jbertles/
I know I’m late to this post, but the important question would be what kind of trash do they have? I mean do people living in villages in Guatemala actually have a lot of plastic?
My one suggestion would be composting everything they can. Since starting to vermicompost, our trash production has decreased drastically.
Wendy,
The main problem is the plastic. From drink bottles, food containers, grocery bags, packaging, etc etc. Now just by itself it’s a bad thing, but when you burn the plastic in the middle of the village at the dump, things get even worse!
As a way to reduce the amount of trash they produce, trash is burnt both at the dump and in the gutters around the village. Burning plastic not only smells gross, but is no good for anyone. :(
I’m interested in learning more about vermicomposting and how it can help reduce levels of trash. Worms, though somewhat creepy to me, are awesome.