Environmentalism has come to the DR.

So the other day I was joking with a friend online about how there are things we do here to save money or resources that fall into the category of environmental friendliness, however we live in a country that is completely unaware of what taking care of the environment is. I told her I didn't quite know what to call what we do, because on one hand I wash and reuse ziplock bags, grab a kitchen towel to wipe up spills instead of a papertowel, use cloth napkins instead of paper, reuse paper in our printer, refill the cartridge from the printer and I still use cloth diapers with Eric when we are home; however, there is no recycling program here so I throw EVERYTHING in the trash...can you believe it? I can barely type the words I feel so bad about doing it, especially since we moved from a city that proudly boasts having a goal of recycling more trash than is actually thrown in the dump.

My friend called it "accidental environmentalism". Which kind of fits. While people here are not the least concerned with the environment, there are many things they do to reuse and conserve. It's just out of thriftiness rather than a mindset of "reducing their carbon footprint".

On the other hand, I am appalled everyday when I see someone throwing trash out of their car; or the large trucks that spew thick black smoke making it impossible to roll down your windows in the car; or piles of burning trash, which include disposible water bottles; or plastic bags hung up in trees blowing in the wind. Eric told me he read in National Geographic that one of the top ten industrial waste sites in the world is just on the edge of the city where there is a dump for car batteries. I can't even think about how that effects the soil and water supply in our area.

The first time I took my reusable bags to the supermarket someone from Eric's family asked me why I was bringing them with me and why I didn't want the plastic bags from the store. I explained how bad the bags were for the environment, taking 100's of years to break down and how the sheer numbers of these bags are clogging the landfills. They kind of laughed and said (and I quote), "We don't have a problem with the environment here. So, you don't have to worry about that." I kid you not. And, everytime I bring my bags to the store I have to explain what to do with them to the person bagging my grocery items. What irks me the most, though, is the people bagging the groceries put one or two things in a bag and oftentimes double bag things, so you end up with literally 30 plastic bags when all is said and done.

So, imagine my surprise when someone told me yesterday about a recent trip to a Costco-type store here. She said they had stopped using bags and the woman at the register told her she had to take her items out to the car in her basket and load them into her car that way. She offered to sell her bags and showed her the sign stating they were changing their policy. This person was so angry she had the manager come to the register so she could give them a piece of her mind. She told him they were just doing it to make more money off of people by selling them bags. She left the store mad and got an e-mail from the store later that day explaining their new policy. As she was telling this to me she paused to find the right words in English and I tried to help her along by saying, "Was their explanation in the e-mail about the environment?" And, she kept saying no, it wasn't the environment. It was about the animals in the ocean and how they eat the plastic and die. And, I said the word environment again and she said it wasn't that it was about the animals.

Well, I left it there, although you know I wanted to jump up on my soap box that very instant and inform her all about the global environmental crisis and how mad I get everytime I see a car spew out black smoke and how I can't believe people light their trash on fire or dump paint into the gutters, or...well, you get the picture.

It's baby steps. And, you just gotta keep doing what you can do, even if you have nowhere to take your plastic bottles and paper to recycle. What can you do when you live in a country where most people are just hoping for a warm meal and running water? It's hard to be as concerned about the environment here as I was in Boston, because I understand the survival instinct in stronger than the protection instinct.