Healthy Schools Peace Corps Volunteer in Guatemala since February 2013

Thursday, June 19, 2014

Trash Management (or Lack Thereof)

There is no trash pick-up in my town so most families and schools burn their trash. All of their trash: paper, plastic, and organic. I personally separate my trash. I take my plastic trash into Xela when I go to do work or meet up with friends, I burn my paper trash in the plancha in my kitchen, and about once a week I feed my organic trash (aka food scraps) to the pigs. My host family has a lot of them and often times they can be found walking around the backyard and throughout the house. I don't have a sink and I have yet to see anything that looks like a garbage disposal anywhere in Guatemala so I store all of the scraps in a bucket and then whenever it gets full I take a little walk out back and give it all to the pigs. 

This is my kitchen when I am burning my paper trash. There is a chimney, but a lot of smoke escapes from the top nonetheless.


The to-be happy recipient of my organic trash

3 comments:

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  2. That pig does not look like it will produce much bacon. Why doesn't the family feed their organic garbage to the pigs? What do they feed them?

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  3. How did you get that pig to pose for the picture? Was it the promise of more garbage?

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