November 7, 2005: Headlines: COS - Panama: Wate Management: Personal Web Site: Panama RPCV Jeremy Terhune writes: Want Not, Waste Not: Waste Management in Peace Corps Panama

Peace Corps Online: Directory: Panama: Peace Corps Panama : The Peace Corps in Panama: November 7, 2005: Headlines: COS - Panama: Wate Management: Personal Web Site: Panama RPCV Jeremy Terhune writes: Want Not, Waste Not: Waste Management in Peace Corps Panama

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Panama RPCV Jeremy Terhune writes: Want Not, Waste Not: Waste Management in Peace Corps Panama

Panama RPCV Jeremy Terhune writes: Want Not, Waste Not: Waste Management in Peace Corps Panama

"As PCVs we couldn't generate the annual 9 billion dollars necessary to provide water and sanitation to the worlds developing nations. The popular Recycle! mantra was useless as well, because there was no infrastructure to process our plastic plates into plata. What are we left with? Education."

Panama RPCV Jeremy Terhune writes: Want Not, Waste Not: Waste Management in Peace Corps Panama

Monday, November 07, 2005


Want Not, Waste Not: Waste Management in Peace Corps Panama

According to the Earth Communications Office, the U.S. hosts 5% of the world’s human population while it uses over 30% percent of its resources. As a result of our affluence we have birthed Freshkills landfill, in New York, which is larger than the Great Pyramids combined and visible to the naked eye from outer space. Thus, a unique aspect of campo life is the relationship a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) develops with her/ his trash: there are no men in colorful jumpsuits that arrive on Mondays to make it “disappear” in some landfill behind low-income housing tracts. And when we burn it, we breathe it while the sun sets in an array of pretty colors from the noxious gasses. The point is that we buy into stuff that just won’t go away.

The annexation, I mean separation, of Panamá from Columbia by the United States was not an altruistic act. It was a result of Open Door policy, the forced opening of international markets and tapping of natural resources to appease big business’ insatiable appetite for profit. What does this have to do with waste in the campo? The products that are pushed into foreign markets by American companies are not sustainable. They are waste oriented, or designed for disposability instead of compatibility with the environment. At the local kiosko a PCV can find a bouquet of products offered by Palmolive, Coke, Phillip-Morris (or a subsidy thereof), Gillette, among others; all of which end up in creeks, beaches, schoolyards, and worst of all, our lungs. Does anybody find it ironic that we send volunteers to help clean up the environment while simultaneously flooding Panama and other countries with waste?

Fortunately, the problem seems more complicated than it is. As PCVs we couldn't generate the annual 9 billion dollars necessary to provide water and sanitation to the worlds developing nations. The popular Recycle! mantra was useless as well, because there was no infrastructure to process our plastic plates into plata. What are we left with? Education. Not many campesinos seemed aware of the tremendous power they hold as consumers. If a product isn't bio-logically designed, don’t buy it. Find an alternative or eliminate it from the grocery list. Besides, cutting out the Snickers bars with those obnoxious wrappers will help reduce your waste size.

A wise man once said “There is no calamity like not knowing what is enough.” . If “El Freshkills II” is not going to pop up in Panama in the next few decades, PCVs must provide an important example by choosing the environment over temporary satisfaction. Instead of figuring out ways to deal with trash, drink a few glasses of puréed Noni (a medicinal plant) to cure your Affluenza, and stop buying into it. Or take a piece of advice born from an era when Tuberculosis was called Consumption and flip it around: Want Not, Waste Not.

This article was written by Jeremy Terhune while he served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Panama from 2002-2005.





When this story was posted in November 2005, this was on the front page of PCOL:


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Story Source: Personal Web Site

This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Panama; Wate Management

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