I have crossed over.
I am officially a "green" geek.
How do I know?
I spent the better part of the week in Kampala getting everything settled with buying the recycling containers/boxes and paints to put logos on them. While there, I also visited several recycling operations in the city - and yes, I was geek-ily excited. But that was to be expected; I've been seeing videos and reading articles about all this machinery and the process for months and months now, and getting to see it in person in a developing country, was just exciting.
No no, the geeky part came at the polyethylene recycling plant - Omega Plastics. They recycle plastic bags. When I walked in I was greeted by a very nice looking Indian man about my age. He was happy to show me around and was very open and honest about how recycling was going well and not going well in Kampala. He helped me understand what would make it worth their while to come pick up waste in Gulu (having one ton - literally - of grocery sacks.....this is why no one has tried to do what I'm doing!) and posed some important questions for me to consider and made some really good suggestions (including that we buy one of their old smaller machines - only $5,000. Oh man, how I wish that were in the budget! Maybe someday.....)
On our walk around the plant we also discussed a bit more friendly topics; his family is three generation Ugandan-Indian. Half his family moved to Canada during the Idi Amin years, half of them stayed in Uganda keeping a low profile. (Read this article if you don't know about the expulsion.) He went to the international school in Kampala and then to Canada for university, consequently he has hardly any accent at all. His father runs the recycling business, and he's willing to help out now but has some things started on the side of his own. As our conversation wound down and I was getting ready to go, he asked how long I was in town.
"Until Saturday morning," I reply.
"Oh, have you been to Mish-Mash yet?" he asks, referring to a new artsy place in town that just opened up.
"Not yet, but I've been hearing good things about it."
"Yeah, you should come out Friday night, and then we could talk all about recycling and I'll tell you all the crazy stories about why it's so difficult in this city."
......
Did I?....Did I just get picked up on by a guy who used a recycling line? ....... And was it viable? Yep. Yes, I did. And it was....
I laughed over this for hours afterwords, thinking of the ensuing conversation we would have late Friday night. "We could...you know, go back to my place? Talk about....recycling?..." Oh, how roMANtic! I have entered a whole new phase of life.
That night I went out to watch the football (soccer) game with one of the girls I was staying with there in Kampala. We were sitting next to this kid who asked what I was doing out here and when I told him he said, "Oh! You have to come to Green Drinks!"
"Green Drinks?"
"Yeah, my housemate is out here working on renewable energy stuff and started a night called Green Drinks. It's the first Tuesday of every month and everyone gets together for the evening to discuss the environment and ideas and successes and all that. It's a lot of fun."
And you know what? It did sound fun.
I have crossed over.
I am officially a "green" geek.
How do I know?
I spent the better part of the week in Kampala getting everything settled with buying the recycling containers/boxes and paints to put logos on them. While there, I also visited several recycling operations in the city - and yes, I was geek-ily excited. But that was to be expected; I've been seeing videos and reading articles about all this machinery and the process for months and months now, and getting to see it in person in a developing country, was just exciting.
 |
| Outside Omega Plastics |
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| A mountain of plastic bags! All to become a new material. |
No no, the geeky part came at the polyethylene recycling plant - Omega Plastics. They recycle plastic bags. When I walked in I was greeted by a very nice looking Indian man about my age. He was happy to show me around and was very open and honest about how recycling was going well and not going well in Kampala. He helped me understand what would make it worth their while to come pick up waste in Gulu (having one ton - literally - of grocery sacks.....this is why no one has tried to do what I'm doing!) and posed some important questions for me to consider and made some really good suggestions (including that we buy one of their old smaller machines - only $5,000. Oh man, how I wish that were in the budget! Maybe someday.....)
On our walk around the plant we also discussed a bit more friendly topics; his family is three generation Ugandan-Indian. Half his family moved to Canada during the Idi Amin years, half of them stayed in Uganda keeping a low profile. (Read this article if you don't know about the expulsion.) He went to the international school in Kampala and then to Canada for university, consequently he has hardly any accent at all. His father runs the recycling business, and he's willing to help out now but has some things started on the side of his own. As our conversation wound down and I was getting ready to go, he asked how long I was in town.
"Until Saturday morning," I reply.
"Oh, have you been to Mish-Mash yet?" he asks, referring to a new artsy place in town that just opened up.
"Not yet, but I've been hearing good things about it."
"Yeah, you should come out Friday night, and then we could talk all about recycling and I'll tell you all the crazy stories about why it's so difficult in this city."
......
Did I?....Did I just get picked up on by a guy who used a recycling line? ....... And was it viable? Yep. Yes, I did. And it was....
I laughed over this for hours afterwords, thinking of the ensuing conversation we would have late Friday night. "We could...you know, go back to my place? Talk about....recycling?..." Oh, how roMANtic! I have entered a whole new phase of life.
 |
| Plastic Recycling Industries - the land of waste hard plastics. Owned by the Rwenzori water bottle company. |
That night I went out to watch the football (soccer) game with one of the girls I was staying with there in Kampala. We were sitting next to this kid who asked what I was doing out here and when I told him he said, "Oh! You have to come to Green Drinks!"
"Green Drinks?"
"Yeah, my housemate is out here working on renewable energy stuff and started a night called Green Drinks. It's the first Tuesday of every month and everyone gets together for the evening to discuss the environment and ideas and successes and all that. It's a lot of fun."
And you know what? It did sound fun.
I have crossed over.
 |
| A few of the plastic sorters that work at PRI. They laughed and laughed and laughed at having their photo taken. |
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| The sea of water bottles, jerry cans, and other hard plastics. |
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| Whinny gave me a tour of PRI. Lovely woman in front of a load of trash. |
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| This is the final product for PRI - washed and chipped plastic. |
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| Rwenzori is the largest bottled-water manufacturer in Uganda. They now make more money off recycling plastic than they do their bottled water. |
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| And yet, unfortunately, right across the street from PRI's gate you can see remnants of burnt plastic. An uphill battle for sure. |
Oh my word. This made me laugh so hard! You are SUCH a green geek!! I am so glad that you are so thrilled about the work that you are doing!! But where in the WORLD are you supposed to store 2 TONS of bags??? Those bags weigh nothing! You will have to collect zillions of them!!
ReplyDeleteHaha, precisely. That's why I'm selling most of them here in Gulu, and what I can't sell I'll take to Kampala myself. Storing a literal TON of plastic bags in my backyard is just not practical....
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