Caption: Outside Matagalpa to the south, I came across an ecological wasteland on my way to the municipal plant nursery. Honestly, I’ve never seen such a horror in my life. I wasn’t sure I would put such awful, heartbreaking devastation on my feed. But I think people need to see this. 😭
This is the old dump, not in municipal use, but people are still dumping and collecting recyclables from the trash.
What I find most frustrating about Nicaragua is the pervasive ecological impact of waste on the environment here, and how it will impact everyone and everything. People dump trash as a matter of course in the campo (countryside) because there is no service outside of the cities. Or they make piles and occasionally burn them, plastic and all. And I don’t judge them for it. It’s the responsibility of the Nicaraguan government to manage this problem more effectively. 🔥
The dumping impacts the watershed and groundwater quality. And the burning releases a whole host of chemicals like PCBs and dioxins that people will breathe. And those are just some of the human impacts. We haven’t even touched on the impacts to the natural systems and the creatures that live within. 🐇🐒🦉
What gets me upset is that with all the interest in renewable energy and saving the forests from cattle grazing here, why hasn’t plasma gasification (PG) been an international investment? 🌴🌲🐂🐃
If municipal PG facilities were installed in each region, the people of the second poorest country in the Western Hemisphere could be paid fir their trash. People would seek out old debris piles to sell to the Muni PG. the trash would be incinerated cleanly, turned into needed energy and carbon byproduct used for the roads (ironically, the roads here are better than in my home Sonoma County).
♻️🆒
When I served on our County Waste committee, tasked with visioning the best ecological future for our landfill, I pushed for PG as the future for Sonoma County’s waste stream. We could eventually mine and remove the old landfills for the PG unit. 🚯❌⚛️
I was told it was unrealistic and too expensive. This was 7 years ago. The push would be diversion, keep filling landfills, but divert as much as possible. (Cont)
Photo taken at: Matagalpa, Matagalpa
