Senegal: From Natural to Plastic in Three Years
By Jenn (TinyChoices.com) | July 22, 2008
Special correspondent Amy, on the recent eco-changes in her beloved Senegal:
One thing I’d always loved about living in Senegal was how easy it was to create almost no garbage. I would buy eggs at the boutique — however many I wanted — and they’d be gingerly wrapped in a piece of newspaper. (Usually the paper was imported: I’ve bought packing paper from boutiques when I found eggs or bread or sugar cubes being wrapped in The New Yorker or The New York Times Magazine. Did you think that your paper was actually recycled? Think again.)
Baguettes were delivered by bicycle in large, indestructible, thick brown-paper bags that were originally used for cement and last forever. (They were clean, of course.) I would treat myself to a Coke every now and then, always colder than the ones here because they were in glass bottles, which I would return when I was finished. I know what you’re thinking — what about the gas used to ship those heavy things? Fair point, but often these bottles were distributed locally by a wooden horse cart with the Coca-Cola logo hand-painted on its sides.
This is not to say that the Senegalese like it this way. The Coke bottles require a deposit. The pot scrubbers made of grass are always falling apart. The cloth diapers are a pain to wash. Thatch roofs for village houses have to be re-woven each year. Carrying the traditional bucket to the market is much less handy than using plastic bags. Between cooking from scratch, fetching water from the well or neighborhood tap, heating food on a charcoal pot, and clearing the house of the desert dust that blows in constantly, just getting through the day in Senegal is work enough: who wants to be scrubbing baby-poo stains on top of that?
And so it was that I found that things had changed when I went back to Senegal last month after three years away. Now, when I’d ask for a Coke at the boutique, the guy would ask, “Plastique?” But he would say it with a bit of flair, a slight, unconscious lilt in his voice and a glimmer in his eye, as one might have when saying, “Deluxe?” Or, “a present”? And of course, I would respond, offended and self-righteous: “VERRE.” [Ed: translation: "GLASS"]
But there’s no stopping the tide. The old cloth diapers had a sort of reusable, plastic casing that went with them; tying and safety pins were required. Gone. Cloth maxi-pads were made from this special red cotton and tied on like our sanitary napkins from the 40s. Or they were a kind of cotton wadding that stuck in your underwear. Gone. Maintenant, tous les boutiques vendent ‘Always.’ Plastic pot scrubbers, plastic bags for eggs and cookies and sugar cubes and mint leaves, plastic shavers, plastic brooms and dustpans; they’re everywhere.
The thing is, I can’t blame anyone. If the disposable version is cheaper, easier, and ubiquitous, and life is hard, expensive, and exhausting, are you really gonna care that there’s no recycling or proper garbage disposal anywhere in the country? Won’t it make your life a little bit less stressful to get a brand-new, bright-pink, shiny, plastic pot-scrubber that you won’t have to replace for a long time? Doesn’t it add a bit of deluxe to your life? Come to think of it, isn’t that why we’re such suckers for packaging, too? When products are wrapped up, aren’t they so much more like presents? And a present, as we all know, puts a little bounce in our step, a lilt in our voice, and a glimmer in our eyes — something that everyone, in every country, is after.
Topics: Waste | 9 Comments »
9 Comments
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Fascinating post. interesting how those of us who have had the disposable life now yearn for the more meaningful life, where eggs are wrapped in newspaper and coke packaged in reusable glass bottles.
But of course people across the planet want easier lives and disposable products offer it. Why wouldn’t they? We did. Moreover, folks in pre-industrialized countries are entitled to a higher standard of living, and the standard of living most emulated (and most readily available) is ours. All the more reason for the United States and other industrialized countries to speed up development of cleaner technology, more renewable energy, create standards for less packaging, move away from plastic and help spread those things (for free) in throughout the world.
thanks for the post. i’ve been thinking about these things a lot over the past several years. I’ve noticed so many changes in India with increased consumption and more disposables. I’d carry my own shopping bag, something that was pretty common in the not too distant past, which seemed like a growing rarity. The waste ‘management’ infrastructure wasn’t growing at the same rate as consumption. I was encouraged by the ban of plastic bags in Rwanda, and the promotion of traditional baskets.
But overall, manufacturers and producers of plastic, disposable, and toxic goods get to flood markets all over the world with their cheap goods, and communities bear the costly environmental, health and financial burdens, of this waste.
it would be great if that responsibility was shared by the higher-ups generating the products.
Hi - this is exactly why I’m working so hard to get the SMaRT Sustainable Product standard into place - it will bring plastics down worldwide and help us develop convenience that doesn’t pollute.
Great post. I just returned from a trip to Belize, a place I lived as a volunteer back in the 90′s, and I had the exact same experience. I was actually looking forward to my daily Coke in a bottle, only to find out that they now came in plastic bottles and it was nearly impossible to find a place that sold them in glass bottles. It’s such a difficult situation as you point out…they already have so many other things to worry about in their lives, it’s hard to fault them for using plastic and yet I cringed at the same time. I hope, for everyone’s sake, we will get there, sooner or later.
I guess it’s the grass is always greener thing. Great post and I appreciate you compassion.
Now where to find a balance……..
[...] from Natural to Plastic in Three Years:Amy, guest writing on Tiny Choices, talks about the changes in her beloved Senegal, in only the three years that she has been away. [...]
[...] Senegal: From Natural to Plastic in Three Years [...]
[...] from Natural to Plastic in Three Years:Amy, guest writing on Tiny Choices, talks about the changes in her beloved Senegal, in only the three years that she has been away. [...]
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