Have you ever thought about trash? Like what to do with it or where it goes after you throw it away? I bet my friend Laura, an environmental science teacher, has thought about trash, but really the only thought I ever gave it was, "Did I remember to roll the cart out to the curb? Tomorrow is trash day." Here in Tanzania, I think about trash quite a bit. You see, there are no trucks or men who come to your home to take it away. There is no disposal service at all. Fortunately, I do not accumulate a lot of trash, maybe a grocery bag a month, because most of my food is fresh from the market. To dispose of the organic waste, I just stand on my back porch and fling the food scraps into the corn field. (The chickens next door really like this. One time I even caught the rooster in my doorway looking to see if I had any more food in the kitchen). The paper trash, I sometimes burn, but it usually takes me at least a half box of matches to get the fire started, unless I use my precious kerosene. I try to avoid burning plastic, because I still remember the horrible smell of burning plastic bottles in the pit outside my window when I was
staying in Dar es Salaam. Not pleasant! Little Maria's solution is to just throw trash on the ground. Another Peace Corps trainee did this when we were returning to Morogoro from Mikumi Park. She threw her banana peel out the window of our bus and hit a man riding a bicycle! Pole! Then she tossed out her soda can as well, and she is American! But what do you do with it? Plastics have come to developing countries before they have a way to deal with them. I have been taking the rest of my trash to Moshi and have been putting it in the trash cans along the street. I thought if they have trash cans, maybe they have trash service and a sanitary landfill or something like that. However, last week, as we were pulling into the bus stand, I saw a big pile of trash in the bushes. People, even little children, were picking through it! What to do about trash?
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