Do you recycle?

Do you recycle? I mean, really recycle? As I was riding through Kampala the other night, I was taking in all the surroundings. The city is always bustling with people walking, driving, riding bodas, and selling or shopping. This is not typical shopping. There is shopping in traffic, through your car window. Shopping at the many new and used stores on the side of the streets. This particular evening, what interested me, was the plant nurseries along the road. Rows and rows of plants, from very small, to very large. I'm not sure what type of plants, but I imagine there are vegetable plants, flowers, trees, and shrubs. As I was looking at the plants, I noticed what containers the plants were growing in; it was recycled bags. Yellow bags for the larger plants. I am not sure what they contained before, but they had writing on them, and I imagine they were re purposed for the plants. The smaller plants were grown in one liter milk bags, like the one I had mentioned in a previous post. My thoughts went immediately to the number of milk bags that I so casually throw away. Hmm, that won't happen again.

Although there is no formal recycling program here, yet.... I have been attempting to recycle. Mainly because I hate to be wasteful, but also because our trash here gets burned. Not dumped in a landfill, which is bad enough, but burned, often close by our home. It stinks, not to mention what it is probably doing to my lungs. So, I figure the less I throw out, the less I breath in later.

So in attempts to find something to do with my "recyclables", I asked around. I was told to offer it to our staff. The locals here love to get free cardboard boxes. I've heard of one person who donated her moving boxes, and they were used to floor a church. One of my guards requested plastic bottles, like soda bottles, and dish liquid bottles. His wife makes homemade liquid soap, and this gives them a way to package and sell the soap. It makes me happy that my trash can actually help someone earn an income.

When I came to Uganda, I wondered how I would make my mark. What would I do to make a positive impact. And, now I see how Uganda has impacted me. Uganda has made me more aware of the many wonderful things I have available to me, and how I can share them, even my trash.

I've learned not to take any item for granted, not even an empty bottle or bag. I even wash and reuse my Ziploc bags. They are not sold here, and I have to reorder them when I run out. So, why be wasteful?

So, I ask you again, do you recycle? Re purpose? Reuse? Just because you have it in abundance now, doesn't mean that you always will. Maybe you will look at that used bag or box and think "how can I reuse this?".