Jennifer M. Lambert and Dr. John Hawkins, Anthropology
PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
The purpose of this project was to return to Nahuala, Guatemala to continue my research analyzing the relationship between cultural attitudes and treatment of solid waste. I also planned to begin an investigation of the environmental impact of the solid waste there. However, my plans changed when the anthropology department canceled the summer trip to Guatemala. I decided to conduct a parallel two month study in Puerto Rico.
INTRODUCTION:
Puerto Rico turned out to be an excellent place to conduct a parallel study in environmental-cultural- economic interactions. Over the last fifty years, the island has transformed from a poverty similar to that of modern Guatemala to a wealth comparable to that of the richest countries of Latin America. This very rapid economic growth over the last fifty years makes the island a good case study of economic development (western style) and its effects on local environment and attitudes towards environment. Although the cultures of Puerto Rico and Guatemala differ dramatically, what has happened in Puerto Rico economically (and consequently environmentally) can serve as an important lesson to Guatemala and other developing countries striving for the Puerto Rican “ideal” of development. I hope to illustrate this point by using the specific example of the garbage problem.
I used a modified approach of my field studies in Guatemala. I did not have a professor on-hand who was knowledgeable about the country as I did in Guatemala, so I took a course on the history of Puerto Rico at one of the local universities to augment my 300 pages of field notes and better understand historical context. I also leaned more from participant observation than from formal and informal interviews. Toward the end of the two-month period, I constructed a survey. Although my surveys and interviews are not statistically representative of the population, they are a valuable component of my data. In addition, I gathered information from and about many of Puerto Rico’s environmental groups.
PROBLEMS:
My greatest limitation was my lack of time and resources. By the time I started mastering the language, getting contacts, and making progress, I had to leave. Thus, I am concerned about how generalizable my data are. Most of my contacts and informants were educated middle-class female Puerto Ricans. However, my discussions with leaders of environmental groups verified many of my observations about general attitudes towards the environment and garbage problem in Puerto Rico.
OBSERVATIONS:
Unlike indigenous Guatemala, Puerto Rican culture is fully ingrained with consumerism. (Indigenous Guatemala, while it is beginning to show signs of the influence of consumerism, is no where near the level of Puerto Rico.) Both modern Puerto Rican culture and the island’s solid waste problem intimately connect to economic prosperity and its correlating available technology and education. Over the last fifty years, largely through the goods and services made available to the island from foreign (mostly American) sources, the very powerful consumerist element of American life has diffused into Puerto Rico. Fully ingrained within the Puerto Rican culture, consumerism both influences and reflects attitudes on many other issues.
The volume of garbage produced–7000 tons daily–illustrates this (1). Surprisingly, food occupies one of the highest volumes of the land-fills percentage-wise (2). Juan Rosario, a local environmental activist with the organization Mision Industrial, hypothesizes that wasting food has become a symbol of power. In urban areas, both the affluent and the poor waste food. (Rural areas tend to waste less, possibly because this attitude has not yet infiltrated the countryside.) (2). While in indigenous Guatemala food is separated from inorganic solid waste and naturally recycled through use as fertilizer for the farm, in Puerto Rico, it is usually just thrown away with the rest of the garbage.
There is also massive inorganic solid waste in landfills, resulting not only from a high (and growing) population density, but also from consumer habits. People often buy for the sake of buying if they have the means, without stopping to consider if they really need the item. Items are thrown away as readily as they are purchased. Modern Puerto Rican consumerism-oriented lifestyle places a very high value on convenience. Plastics used in disposable wrappers for foodstuffs, in diapers, and other such one-time-use conveniences are immediately disposed of.
In Puerto Rico, most people think of garbage as a material entity. It is objects–a necessary evil and natural consequence of human development. However, since most materials are reusable and recyclable, actions, and not objects, produce garbage (2). Puerto Rico does not have all of the most recent recycling technology, but according to Rosario, its facilities could recycle all but 20% of what is now being tossed to landfills. However, only 10% of the garbage currently produced on the island is recycled (3).
So if those resources are available, why aren’t people using them? One major reason is fixable: ignorance. Because of a general ignorance about the magnitude of the garbage crisis in Puerto Rico, few people even mention it as a priority problem, and most are indifferent. As long as the garbage is out of sight, it is out of mind. But the problem exists. Half of the island’s landfills have been shut down in recent years. Of the 32 landfills that remain, none comply with the law (2). Furthermore, although many people know that recycling is possible, most do not know where, and how, to use this alternative. Another challenge for recycling is that currently it usually is not convenient. In a society where convenience is valued, this is an important factor.
CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION:
A challenge that developing countries will face in the twenty-first century is to develop economically without damaging the environment as their forerunners have. The danger for developing countries such as Guatemala, as evidenced in the example of Puerto Rico, lies in the mind-set of the “ideal” western economic growth. Traditionally, environmental costs are ignored. The western tradition of paying minimal environmental costs by maximizing tolerance of environmental damage must be averted.
REFERENCES
- Walzer, Robert P. “Waste Authority Urges Closing Half of Landfills. 30 Sites F a l l Short of Federal Standards.” The San Juan Star 14 June 1993: 6.
- Rosario, Juan. Personal Interview. 29 July 1998.
- “Alternativas a la crisis de los desperdicios.” Mision Industrial Informa ano 2, num 3.