- Thread starter Chirimoya
- Start date
Plastic Wave Horror Film
This is going off-topic for DR, but as a answer to your question (about Europe), in my country, there are hardly any plastic bottles that do not come with a refundable deposit, so nobody would ever put any plastic bottle to trash.
Almost every property is required to recycle glass, metallic things (cans etc.), bio-items, paper, carton. The rest of the trash, which isn't that much anymore, is occasionally burned and turned into heat or electricity.
Food that is sold in these styrofoam containers here (fast-food), is sold in paper/carton boxes there.
Back to the DR: The most ridiculous thing I've seen, is that first when a street is constructed, gutters and sewage system, also for rain water, is built. Then people throw their trash to the gutters, which gets to the sewage system and blocks it completely. Then, when it's raining heavily just a few hours, the sewage system is already throwing water up to the street as it's all blocked due to the trash. Then (some) people complain that there's water on the street...
I'm happy to say that where we currently live, the street are in fact clean, and there are no empty lots that are used as garbage dumps. I think it's somehow the junta de vecinos that keeps a rather strict control here. We have to take the trash quite far away, as some of the neighbors got rid of some trash cans as the garbage trucks would never empty them, and the street became a mess. Now where we take the trash, it's 90 % of the time clean and empty even there.
I agree with other posters, this is a mindset thing and takes time and education. I can also understand what other poster said that in high-end schoold the students expect others to clean up after them, as that might well be what their parents have thought them, or the attitude they "inherited".
I'm happy that the video in this thread has made it to various media outlets throughout the world. Perhaps the Ministerio de Turismo and others realize something...
Yes, which is why I said “in addition to” in regards to campaign ads. Thanks for reiterating that this is a global problem. On a positive note, I follow surfer Kelly Slater on instagram. He posted a video a couple of days ago showing before and after clean up of the beach in SD. The difference was amazing. I’m trying to find it on YouTube and determine if it’s actually in SD.
Watch CNN tonight about the trash on the malecon
FYI I was jogging along the malecon today and CNN had several film crews out there in regards to the trash situation. I believe they said they were running the story tonight when I talk to one of the camera guys.
FYI I was jogging along the malecon today and CNN had several film crews out there in regards to the trash situation. I believe they said they were running the story tonight when I talk to one of the camera guys.
Here is the source of Slater’s instagram video:
http://www.parley.tv/updates/2018/7/17/state-of-emergency-santo-domingo
http://www.parley.tv/updates/2018/7/17/state-of-emergency-santo-domingo
I can confirm that that playa is indeed in SD where the Montesino statue is located. I live one block up from there and witnessed the collection and removal of two mountains of trash last week; the same happened at the "beach" by the female obelisk.
Unless local and Federal gov officials in the DR recognize they need to solve this problem, and allocate money, nothing will change. It is the mind set of many people that it is not their problem and that is why this persists. The sad thing is that this is not just a DR problem. It happens all over the world. We need to put up signs stating "I'm not your mother, pickup after yourself." So many lazy people when it comes to polluting.
Yes, and the organization is called Parley. Apparently they raise ocean awareness and organize projects such as the clean up in SD.
I just returned from shooting(from a distance) an event hosted by the Alcaldia Del Distrito Nacional at the Montesino Beach. There are tables with white linen and plastic chairs, the area is contained with metal barriers, and regular people are not allowed to go down the steps from El Malecon to the beach, where officials in their white chacabanas pose for photo-ops with the few workers still raking debris out of the waves. Someone is taking credit for the short-lived cleanup of this area. It does look like one could just jump in the water and swim, if it weren't for the lethal mixture of organic and chemical contaminants therein.
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I can imagine their desperation to engage in superficial damage limitation. This video clip is reaching many more people than any tourism promotion campaign could dream of. It is a huge disaster in the making as far as the tourism industry is concerned.
This all stems by the lacksadaisical of people in the D.R. to the reality of trash piling-up everywhere, including on private property. Here, in El Cortecito, a couple of yrs ago, we had a neighborhood clean-up on a Saturday. We collected 7 dump truck loads of full garbage bags, mostly plastic, styrofoam and glass that had been tossed into the neighborhood by careless taxistas, bus drivers and passing pedestrians. No one cares how much crap they throw on the streets and on private property. The neighborhood now is back in it's original trashed-up condition and in bad need of a repeat performance by the local residents. The people who live here care, but the passers-thru don't!
Some try.
https://dominicantoday.com/dr/plane...ups-to-rescue-dominican-republics-main-river/
Grassroots groups to rescue Dominican Republic’s main river
Santiago.- To counter the Yaque del Norte River’s progressive deterioration as it flows through the city, neighborhood boards and community groups on Sun. began forming the “Yaque del Norte defense committees.”
Pro-culture and Environment Agency coordinator Ramón Enrique Pérez said that some 20 neighborhood boards pledged to form groups in their communities to immediately work to avert the Yaque del Norte’s “slow death” from pollution and deforestation.
“We understand that this is a great step we have taken on this date, every day we become more aware of the need we have to preserve the Yaque del Norte, because of the economic, ecological and environmental importance it has for all Dominicans,” Pérez said quoted by diariolibre.com.
He said deforestation, trash, served water and industrial and business waste that end up the riverbed are what most damage the Yaque del Norte basin.
Over the years we have seen attempts to clean things up. Years ago, Sosua had a trash pick-up plan and several large dumpster containers that trucks could pick up, empty and put back. Never happened. Reports are that the beach has been cleaned up and several TONS of plastic garbage hauled away. Ya gotta wonder where they hauled it away to?
https://dominicantoday.com/dr/plane...ups-to-rescue-dominican-republics-main-river/
Grassroots groups to rescue Dominican Republic’s main river
Santiago.- To counter the Yaque del Norte River’s progressive deterioration as it flows through the city, neighborhood boards and community groups on Sun. began forming the “Yaque del Norte defense committees.”
Pro-culture and Environment Agency coordinator Ramón Enrique Pérez said that some 20 neighborhood boards pledged to form groups in their communities to immediately work to avert the Yaque del Norte’s “slow death” from pollution and deforestation.
“We understand that this is a great step we have taken on this date, every day we become more aware of the need we have to preserve the Yaque del Norte, because of the economic, ecological and environmental importance it has for all Dominicans,” Pérez said quoted by diariolibre.com.
He said deforestation, trash, served water and industrial and business waste that end up the riverbed are what most damage the Yaque del Norte basin.
Over the years we have seen attempts to clean things up. Years ago, Sosua had a trash pick-up plan and several large dumpster containers that trucks could pick up, empty and put back. Never happened. Reports are that the beach has been cleaned up and several TONS of plastic garbage hauled away. Ya gotta wonder where they hauled it away to?
And another news article, NY Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/23/...public-garbage.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/23/...public-garbage.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur
Mr. Gutsch said that recycling was a short-term solution and amounted to only a bandage. Parley for the Oceans advocates phasing out single-use plastic altogether.
There is only one solution for this mess. A world wide ban on plastic. But that won't be done till it's too late. This stuff is killing us. Even the non-cotton clothing is putting fibers into water systems that are so small that they can't be filtered out. We end up drinking it. It's very sad leaving this mess for our children.
Cleaning up a beach means nothing. Leave it for all to see, and find a solution.
The impossible task. Teaching Dominicans not to throw trash everywhere. I think it can not be done. Sad to say.
It will need to start in SCHOOL, Grab the kids while young and impressionable.. Make it Fashionable to be Green, A real PUSH, to " Keep the County Beautiful".. The Kids will have to then teach the Parents etc ... no other way this will work.. You cant teach older Dominicans anything.