Green Tips in the South Caribbean

In the month of July we focused our “green tips” on dealing with solid waste. This week’s focus was on separation of solid waste.
Here in Talamanca (our county) we recommend you separate your solid waste into three catagories:
1. Recycling (Glass, most plastics, and aluminum)
2. Organic waste
3. Garbage.

1. Recycling. Here in the south Caribbean, we have a model recycling association that currently recycles glass, most plastics, and aluminum. Most hotels from Manzanillo, to Puerto Viejo, through Hone Creek to Cahuita and up to BriBri and over to Gandcoa participate in the program. All homes are invited to participate. ReciCaribe, the name of the recycling association, is working on a website you can preview it at
www.greencoast.com/recicaribe
ReciCaribe does accept clean tin/metal cans, but please ONLY send CLEAN, with no labels tuna and vegetable cans.
We are working with a grant that is expanding the recycling center, soon we will be able to recycle many more products!

2. Organic waste:
For visitors, ask your hotel what to do with food wastes such as fruit peelings, coffee grounds, leftovers. If the lodging does not have a composting program, we suggest you encourage them to start one. If you’re in a place that has some natural area around it, we suggest you just throw your organics out “in the bush” They will decompose in a mater of days.
Sending organic waste to the corner garbage pick up site makes a big mess with animals attempting to get to food wastes and it smells as garbage pick up isn’t as regular as we’d all like.

3. Garbage:
At this time there is no other option for items like styrofoam, the plastic bags that chips come in, dirty tin cans (CLEAN tin and metal cans can be sent to the recycling center--clean and no label), disposable diapers, and paper products*, no option other than to send them to the dump. The dump that this community uses is an open air dump in a small community next to a river. We try to send as little as possible to the dump as when it floods, that garbage can head right to the sea.

* Paper products: Some would advise burning paper products, some say it’s a worse pollutant to burn them than to send them to the dump. Our best recommendation for home owners in the area is to dig a hole in the back yard and deposit your biodegradable paper products in it, cover it with a layer of dirt and keep filling.