Putting on the gloves....
The chill has arrived. In the last 2 days, the temperature has dropped an average of 12 degrees celsius, freezing puddles and covering trees with thin coats of frost. I awoke last night to the sound of my chattering teeth, so I piled more covers on and turned on the heater (a momentous occasion). The apartment was warmer than ever this morning. I couldn't fall back to sleep. I looked out the window at the cloudy, moonlit sky and watched the moonbeams shift quickly with the racing gaps in the cloudcover. Winds must have been terribly strong, as the entire sky moved with amazing speed.
For a year, I have been trying to work on a recycling/garbage collection system in my city. I have had small meetings and conversations, I have been welcomed by some and maligned by others. All of that was done in the name of health, modernization and progress. My efforts have now officialy been snubbed. The city has placed recycling bins in a few places, but has not emptied them in weeks. They fill with garbage, which is to be expected without an information campaign or at least a bit of advertizing. It's a bit discouraging, but there's hope brewing: some of the youth and children in the community understand the need for recycling and environmental care and are interested in learning about recycling and its social effects. Slowly (little-for-little in Bulgarian), the community might become waste-conscious and change.
In the coming weeks, work will take me back to Plovdiv, Topolovgrad, Varna and other Bulgarian regions I love. I'll be teaching and leading discussions on geology, project design and amnagement, among other things. Gonna be busy. Ciao!
For a year, I have been trying to work on a recycling/garbage collection system in my city. I have had small meetings and conversations, I have been welcomed by some and maligned by others. All of that was done in the name of health, modernization and progress. My efforts have now officialy been snubbed. The city has placed recycling bins in a few places, but has not emptied them in weeks. They fill with garbage, which is to be expected without an information campaign or at least a bit of advertizing. It's a bit discouraging, but there's hope brewing: some of the youth and children in the community understand the need for recycling and environmental care and are interested in learning about recycling and its social effects. Slowly (little-for-little in Bulgarian), the community might become waste-conscious and change.
In the coming weeks, work will take me back to Plovdiv, Topolovgrad, Varna and other Bulgarian regions I love. I'll be teaching and leading discussions on geology, project design and amnagement, among other things. Gonna be busy. Ciao!
posted by AlexinBulgaria at 2:04 AM
1 Comments:
Remember that it has taken the San Francisco Bay Area 20+ years to get people used to recycling and even so, we now have recyling bins in our city which include ALL recyclables - except food soiled paper, food scraps and garden waste which go in another bin. They don't trust our sorting, I would not trust us either. I think it takes generations to change things like habits of deposing of waste. I still meet people, especially older than I am, who feel recycling is a waste of time and money. It is a long process. You have planted a seed. Bulgaria has joined the EU abd the culture of recycling is an inevitable part of their westernization (along with the consumerism and packaging that will make it even more necessary).
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