Taking out the Trash

Such an easy chore to take out the trash - NOT!  At least not here in Englishtown.  Oh, it's easy to take it out of the cabana.  We bag it up and then stack the bags underneath the cabana until it's time make a trash run.  And we hope that no dogs find it before we can make the trash run.  It's the trash run itself that can pose problems.  We like to take the trash to the nearest landfill about twice a month.  Sometimes that frequency is just not possible. The most recent "sometimes" lasted from October through January; 4 months of trash!  It is such a relief to have the trash cleared out of our house (click to listen).

Four months worth of trash loaded into our work boat.

Trash accumulates when you are in the midst of a construction project.  So much packaging for supplies, especially for the things that are shipped from the US.  Boxes inside boxes, taped up for shipping, untaped and retaped by Customs.  Fortunately, our shipping agent, Easy Shipping to Belize (highly recommended - very professional and helpful), consolidates many items to minimize boxes.  But still we accumulate trash faster than we can get rid of it. A big, perhaps even the biggest, source of our trash is what we collect off the beach.  Mostly plastic shoes, bottles, toothbrushes, etc.  An unending source of trash that is sometimes more than we can handle.  It hasn't been too bad lately.

Yesterday was the first day that we (read "Dennis and Nevan") were able to make a trash run since October.  Various events conspired to keep us out of the landfill.  The main thing was the deplorable state of the Monkey River Road (MRR).  Other things that keep us from making the trip are rough seas that keep us from getting the trash to the MRR and the car being in for repairs.  Below is the route we take to get to the landfill with the MRR in red.

The route to the landfill from WilDen (our place).  The sort of cross-hatched areas between the MRR and the sea are shrimp farms.

We compost all our food waste and lots of paper waste.  But we are still left with cardboard, plastic, glass, metals - all of which would be recycled in the US, but not so here.  The first thing to do in preparation for making a run to the landfill is to make sure the bags are still intact and closed.  The strong UV light degrades the plastic bags in short order; nothing worse than picking up a bag of trash and having it fall apart on you, literally.  Then you load the bags and loose items into the boat for the short ride (in purple on the Google Earth image above) from WilDen to the beginning (or is it the end?) of MRR.  Then off-load the bags into the car or truck.  Our car is being repaired, so we sought the use of our neighbor Nevan's truck for this trip to the landfill.  Good thing since it would have taken at least 5 trips in the car.  It took about 40 minutes to drive the 12 unpaved miles of MRR and then just a few minutes on the Southern Highway to reach the landfill.  Once at the landfill, you carefully make your way along the pot-holed track back to one of the "big holes" into which you throw your bags.  As the "big holes" get filled, they are burned to make room for more trash to be thrown on top.  Eventually the "big hole" is no longer even a small hole and new "big hole" is dug.  Sometimes they scrape the track to make it easier to get to the big hole and sometimes they even scrape dirt over the old big holes.  It's not a very sophisticated operation.  But it is free and fairly close by.  Since there is no other option, that pretty much settles it.

The view from our house is so much nicer with no trash bags in the boat.

I never tire of looking at this.

The greater yellowlegs don't care about the trash as long as it is not in the water.

Two of the three greater yellowlegs that have been visiting our house this winter.

A dusky-capped flycatcher hangs out in the tropical almond tree in front of our house.

The view to the west of our house is pretty nice, too.  You can see why those are called the Cockscomb Mountains.  They are also called the Sleeping Giant.  I think he is having a good dream ...

The Cockscomb in outline against the sky.

Relentless

It started during the early morning hours of October 7th, although I was not awake to see the beginning.   

Rafts of Sargassum drifting in to shore.

More Sargassum seaweed (see my previous post, here) washing up.  But this time it was different - it was full of trash. 

It doesn't look like it amounts to much, except that it just keeps coming.

Hour after hour it accumulated on the shore in overwhelming amounts.

The view of our dock from the veranda.

 It just kept coming ...

The view of the south beach from the dock.

And the north beach.

I could hardly bear to take these photos, but I felt like I should document what was happening.

Floating plastic crap mixed in with Sargassum.

 It was physically gut-wrenching to me to see this.

So much crap.

Sticks and logs were mixed in with the Sargassum and the trash.

The accumulation was several feet deep, 10 or more feet wide and extended as far as the eye could see.

 I learned later that similar amounts were washing up in Punta Gorda, 30 miles to our south, and along the entire Placencia peninsula, 15 miles to our north.  It may have been along the entire coastline of Belize.

These large logs probably washed out of Honduran and Guatemalan Rivers with the floods of the rainy season.  That is probably where the trash came from as well.

An amazing number of logs (called "sticks" locally) washed up just to our north. 

One place in particular seemed to collect plastic.  This looks like a landfill.  

It is almost impossible for me to comprehend the magnitude of this mess.

 It is no exaggeration to say that the accumulation is several feet deep.

And still floating in the water is more Sargassum with small bits of styrofoam and other plastic.

 New accumulations more or less stopped by Oct. 10th, when the next photos below were taken.

The first Sargassum to wash up has dried out and turned dark brown.

We have had 3 people working 6 hours a day to get the mess moved off the beach.

Allen, Matthew, and Lloydie worked steadily using wheelbarrows, pitchforks, and rakes to clear the beach.  

 For almost 2 weeks, the 3 guys worked 6 hours, 6 days a week.  They were able to cut back a little and get back to construction for a few hours a day after that. 

Some of the Sargassum and trash washed back out to sea.

Only to be washed back ashore.

Gradually, they made headway against the overwhelming mass and we could begin to a beach again.

By October 11, the sheer bulk had been dramatically reduced.

 Uncountable wheelbarrow loads were massed in shallow pile on our south lot.

We kept the pile shallow so that the Sargassum could dry out.  The center of the pile had originally been about 3 feet deep and is only a foot or so deep now that the Sargassum has dried.

We will rake through and pull out the largest plastic things like shoes and bottles to bag up and take to the landfill.  But the remainder of little bits of plastic and styrofoam mixed in with Sargassum we will burn on site and then take the resulting plastic slag to the landfill.

Meanwhile, the beach just north of us is still covered with trash. 

This is a spot north of our property where more plastic accumulated than Sargassum.

Lots of little tiny crocs for toddlers in the mix.

To our south, we see little styrofoam bits washing back out into the water from their temporary stranding among mangrove roots.  This, of course, then accumulates on our beach.

 Eventually we will extend our cleanup efforts to the beach to our north.

Our beach, at the left edge of the photo, is pretty clean now, but the north is still trash-covered.

Some of the larger items that will get taken to the landfill.

 It is now to the point where we can walk north on the beach at low tide.  At high tide we have to pick our way through the trash.

Still not pretty.

 One neat thing that washed up is pumice.

Pumice is a volcanic rock that is so filled with minute air-bubbles that it floats.  We think this washes out from the Guatemalan Rivers and originated, perhaps centuries ago, from volcanoes in Guatemala.

Lots of pumice washed up ranging in size from these small pieces (some no larger than cough drop) to football-sized chunks.

The last shots show how our place looks now, 4 weeks after the influx.  We still have trash washing up, but it is manageable.  I can look out at the beach and feel happy rather than sick to my stomach, due almost entirely to the efforts of Allen, Matthew, and Lloydie.

Only 1 errant bottle in sight! 

Once again, the sand calls to us to walk barefoot along the beach.

This is how we like it.

There is still lots of work to do - sorting through the big pile and getting it burned.  Hauling the plastic and slag to the landfill (first by boat to get to our car and then to the landfill), cleaning up to the north and south of our property and staying on top of what washes in from farther away. But it seems feasible and the overwhelming despair is gone.  I've even been swimming again.  Paradise regained.

Road Trip

Such an exciting life we have here in the Toledo District of Belize.  The Monkey River Road dried out enough for us to attempt a road trip to … wait for it …  THE DUMP!  Why are we so anxious to get to the dump?  Keep reading.

Dennis and I noticed that we see the same damn blown-out flip-flops and other lonely single shoes; the same empty plastic bottles that formerly contained sodas, booze, shampoo, motor oil, or bleach; the same plastic remnants of personal hygiene products like deodorant, toothbrushes, combs, brushes, nail polish, toothbrushes, toothbrushes, and more toothbrushes; plastic cutlery and to-go boxes when we walk on our beach or up the each to visit our neighbors.  The common denominator of 90% (99%?) of the trash is plastic.  We (humankind, that is) are finally witnessing the consequences of the truth in Mr. McGuire’s advice to Ben (Dustin Hoffman) in the movie The Graduate:

McGuire: I just want to say one word to you. Just one word.

Ben: Yes, sir.

McGuire: Are you listening?

Ben: Yes, I am.

McGuire: Plastics.

Plastics, alright, on the beach just a few feet north of our property.

Plastics in a plastic bag; a work in progress. 

One person's trash is another critter's trailer home.  I have seen several hermit crabs making do with plastic caps instead of shells.  We have very few shells large than 1.5 inches, except for large conch shells, around here for hermit crabs to inhabit.

Just enough room to retract into.  And in the always fashionable color black.

I do believe this crab may have outgrown his home.  But it is hard to give up this bright orange cap that matches the carapace!

Plastics.  They have been a boon to improving the quality of life of people (and hermit crabs) worldwide – plastic syringes and other medical devices that make modern healthcare possible, plastic components that create affordable consumer goods thus making life easier and better for a greater portion of the population, and so on.  Plastics have also been the bane of the environment – increased oil production to supply the raw material from which plastics are made, increased pollution from plastics that never disintegrate, increased exposure to molecular components of plastics that adversely affect our health, and so on.  I could go into a rant about the evils of plastic, but that is not what this blog is about.

No, this blog is about our life in Englishtown, Toledo, Belize.  And we are seeing all kinds of plastic trash wash up on our beach.  So, Dennis and I recently have been on a 2-person campaign to clean the drift trash off not only our 400+ feet of beach front (which we have been doing for years), but also another 400 feet or so to the north of us.  This is the path we take to visit our neighbors at SteppingStones and Craig at the north end of Englishtown and we would like to enjoy the walk rather than be irritated by the trash.  For a couple of weeks now, we get up and first thing (even before breakfast or coffee, but after toothbrushing!) we walk up the beach and work on collecting the old beach trash and the fresh new arrivals in huge plastic (!) garbage bags.  We have filled 8 bags so far.  I was actually amazed that removing just 8 bags worth of trash would make such a noticeable difference in how the beach looks.  That amounts to 39 gallons of trash per 50 ft of beach front for the first pass of our clean-up efforts.

Because the Monkey River Road had been flooded and impassable for our Subaru Outback stationwagon since mid-October (see my previous posts about the flooding here and here), we had 2 months of our normal trash plus the 8 big bags of beach trash to get to the dump.

We loaded the first bit into the boat and Richard took us to the Monkey River dock on the north side of the river near where we keep our car.  

The boat-load #1 at our Black Creek dock.

The car parked at at Mr. Horace Coleman's place.  Not bad-looking for 2001 model.   

We brought our car around to the dock and transferred the bags to the car (and some to Chris’ truck – thanks Chris!) and off we went up the Monkey River Road.  The rest of the photos are a mashup of 2 separate trips to the dump.  I got some photos related to the post about boating through the farm and down the Monkey River Road to get to the Pumping Station for the village water supply.

This the driveway to the farm, the same driveway that was flooded enough to accommodate an outboard motor boat a few weeks ago.

The Pumping Station with the generator and the well head.

The water tower at jungle's edge.

The only reason the road was passable at all for a car, as opposed to a truck or SUV, was because the Toledo District Road Department had been hard at work.  By the time we drove up the road, 3 or more loads of rock and gravel had been dumped at strategic spots and now the back hoe was digging deeper ditches at each side of the road.  The deeper ditches are great when there is a heavy down pour, but not very effective if the river itself floods.  All of Belize has been inundated this year.  Dave Rider at Belize -Adventures in Paradise has a nice series of blogs about the road issues up in the Corazol District.

This had been a car-swallowing mud pit.  Seriously - the pit was about 3 feet deep and 6 feet long across the width of the road. 

After I took a few photos of the action, one of the crew very kindly walked through the mud ahead of me, moving big rocks to the side. We made it through without mishap. 

The second time we made the trip even more gravel, rocks, and what I will call "boulders", had been dumped on the road and the crew had moved to a new site.

You need to choose your route very carefully through this mess.  Sometimes it has to get worse before it gets better.

 On the first trip up the road, Dennis drove and then I made the return down the road.  On the next trip, 2 days later, I drove up the road and managed to really hit bottom a number of times on the stretch of road in the photo below.  Of course the photo below was taken after they had "scraped" the road, moving the boulders to the side; I drove it before, while the road was still edge-to-edge boulders.

See those big light colored chunks on the left of the road?  The entire road surface was covered with boulders that size earlier in the day.

For perspective, that is my foot on the rocks in the foreground of the photo one above.

 You can see where this story is headed, can't you?  Yes, I busted a hole in the oil pan.  :-(  Things were still OK when we stopped at the dump, but by the time we parked in Indy, there was an obvious oil leak.  

But first -- THE DUMP!!!  We had heard that the dump had been improved and didn't know quite what to expect other than there was a gate and someone to open the gate for you.  

Once past the gate, I took this photo looking back toward the gatehouse, trying to capture the landscaping, OK, the 2 or 3 trees that had been planted along the road.  

The road into the dump is just off the Southern Highway.  Formerly, you just turned onto the dump road, took a deep breath, opened the car door and threw your trash out right there, and then got back into the car, hopefully without breathing.  And the flies were horrendous.  You didn't want to risk driving into the dump area because of all the crap that could destroy your tires.  All of that has ben covered over, new roads have been made, and there are giant pits for you to throw your garbage into.  They periodically bulldoze stuff into the pits and then burn it down.  

Sadly, there are families who survive by sorting through the garbage for things to salvage.  They like to go through your stuff before you toss it into the pit.  Dennis spoke with the mother who was there with her young pre-school kids and learned that she can profit from aluminum cans and maybe glass bottles.  He told her we would start sorting our trash so we could just give her bags with the things she can trade for.  

For a a dump, this place was pretty nice.  The smell wasn't too bad (I guess we have to give it time to build up), and it seemed to be laid out with a thought to the future.  They had planted trees here and there along the roads.  Dennis spotted a fork-tailed flycatcher that I was able to photograph.

Fork-tailed flycatcher at the dump.

I guess a dump is a good place for a flycatcher to catch flies!

After the dump, we went in to Indy to stop at the hardware store and run some other errands.  While at the hardware store, Nelson, the taxi driver we normally use when we go to Indy by boat, came in to let me know that oil was leaking from the car.  I told him about the road and he volunteered to make the repair for us while we did our other errands.  So we bought the patch kit, followed him to his house. left the car there while he drove us back into Indy. Two hours later, after we had done all our errands and eaten an early lunch, Nelson took us back to get the car.  He charged us the exorbitant price of $30 BZ (=$15 US) and while the patch had been setting up, his daughter washed the car inside and out.  We paid the $30 and gave them each a nice tip.  Not a bad deal.

We decided to road test the patch on paved roads before going back down the Monkey River Rd by making a trip to a plant nursery near the town of Dangriga.  Eleven plants later, we were ready to head home.  Below are more scenes from the Monkey River Road.

The parked along the road so I can take some photos.  (This was 2 days before the oil pan incident, so the car was still pretty dirty.)  The road is in good shape here.

The jungle comes nearly to the edge of the road.  In the days before the power line was put in, it did come all the way to the road.

Another section of jungle-edged road, rough, but easily passable.

There is so much wildlife along the Monkey River Rd.  We saw a small fox (no photos), all kinds of birds, butterflies and other insects, and lizards.  I'm sure if we had gotten into the bush we would have seen lots more including snakes, scorpions, and spiders.  There are not infrequent jaguar sitings along the road.  I am anxious to make an excursion on the road and into the bush once its gets cool enough to wear long pants, long sleeves, and shoes.

This Common Black-hawk posed beautifully in the late afternoon sun.

It was not at all intimidated by our presence in its domain.

Soon we were back at the dock to load the 11 plants (more on those in another post) and other purchases into the boat and get back to our sweet spot on the sea.

Looking from the south edge of our property along the mostly trash-free beach.

Since we got back on Friday (2 days ago as I write this) it has poured rain during both nights and also rained some during the days.  Don't know when we will venture onto the road again, but at least the river hasn't flooded.