Black Market Recycling In 3rd World Countries

[ckcomputerstallahassee 0]

According to Perus National Institute of Statistics, 39.3 percent of Perus population live in poverty. Jobs are scarce. The Peruvian government generally does a poor job of collecting trash and there is almost no formal recycling in the country. Garbage is just placed on the streets of Peru in whatever kind of plastic bag is available. In the capital city of Lima, where approximately one third of Perus 28 million people live, residents take out the trash on a daily basis. In other cities, it also generally is a fairly regular activity. So, with a regular supply of garbage, an organized industry of black market recycling has erupted.
For an American like myself, it was an odd and uncomfortable feeling when I first saw people digging through my trash, pulling out empty soda bottles, cans, and other items that might be of use. I began to wonder why this was occurring, so I asked my wife who is Peruvian to explain. She described initially that it was a job and that many people in Peru were happy just to have one. Next she said that the plastic bottles and other items were sometimes sold to businesses that would sometimes refill the bottles and containers with unsanitary water, phony liquids, fake pharmaceutical substances, and other cheap impostors. These fake items are then sold to Perus poor, or to the general public by stores that choose not to monitor that their suppliers are legitimate.

Sounds bad, right? Well, as I wrote earlier, its not that simple.
There is also the issue of child labor. An estimated 2.3 million children between the ages of 6 and 17 work in Peru, almost a third of that demographic. Many of them collect trash. Click here to read the story of Diego, a 13-year-old trash collector. One can only guess that sifting through garbage pounds a heavy psychological and physical toll on much of Perus youth.

Excerpt from Article

I feel like all the black market recycling should be watched much more closely. There is a lot of things wrong with these corporate companies polluting, but just look at some of these pictures from this National Geographic Article.

Do you think anyone can ever regulate or reverse what has been done to 3rd world countries and the environment? I don't think there is a way to reverse what humans have screwed up..

[adriantc 0]

I'm also pessimistic about the damage we have done. And not only in 3rd world countries, but everywhere. Unfortunately the 3rd world countries will be the first to suffer greatly because of the way we treat our would. Why? Because most of the 3rd world countries have economies based on agriculture. Industry, on the scale of the USA for example, is just a joke. So a ravaged planet, ravaged by storm, floods, tornados, etc., will him them the hardest. In the West we already eat lots and lots of genetically modified crap which doesn't require so much water or sun.... at the expense of our health of course. A proof of what I am saying is the debate on alternative fuels made out of perfectly good food. More developed countries buying huge quantities of food from low developed countries in order to produce alternative fuels. In turn the people of the low developed countries get hungry. Not to mention the ever increasing prices of food on the global market... And since they lack even the basic things that keep us alive what good could it come from this? The world is a giant trash can. Some try not to make so much trash, but end out failing. Others don't even care. But we shall experience first hand the things we have done.

[hitmanblood 0]

Well this certainly is growing issue but the important thing is that this army or industry whatever you call it is hardly controlled in country that cannot organize people to take out garbage how would you organize and pay people to control garbage processing and recycling. It costs too much and government wouldn't have enough money to pay for it. So there is real problem of course foreign help might be good idea but the point is if country doesn't know how to cope with such things if foreign authorities come in and work around government they will never learn how to cope with such problems. This is for certain growing problem and someone has to come with solution but as third based that is third world countries are weak already solution cannot come from them. The point is that there are many other things that should be attended before solutions for this kind of affairs is found. Like job scarcity healthcare child labor education and other more important things. IN the developed world we usually think of such things as simple to control in poor countries but they are not first of all we must think how much problem with recycling and carbon dioxide gases we emit and how much third based countries and we try to impose on them to start using clean and rebuildable resources. When many developed countries enriched themselves with usage of such resources. No one thinks of those issues. Maybe one solution is to track down emissions of carbon dioxide by historical values and not up to date industry. This would certainly shift the balance. Since developed countries made a lot more damage then poorer and third world countries. Also one important thing is Kyoto agreement and we have to see that one of the largest world powers that has signed Kyoto agreement haven't yet ratified it and started employing it and how come that scientists from those countries and newspapers movie makers all talk how third world is polluting the planet and reffering to highly industrial based countries like China or even India. I am talking about United States of America that is one of the largest emitters of carbon dioxide and in fact largest pollutant regarding water supplies and garbage produced. think and reflect on this.

[Okara KAmi 0]

Well this may come out a bit distorted at first but please just listen . I think what is happening in Peru is necessary for it to survive. Peru is in deep trouble economically and is reaching all time lows because of the lack of a central industry. This means that there is no such thing as capital freedom and they have no way of establishing any type of market over the area in the near future. The residents of Peru are only being human in doing what is needed to survive. Te so called black market is actually a pretty good thing right now because people need jobs and trash can be considered a good resource as it is fundamentally never ending. I am always against this type of suffering and would do anything to help but in my position I can't. This is the same with many countries and those who can find it a financial gamble to do so. What can we do? Nothing. With the minimal economic knowledge that I have I am hoping that this black market will lead to many other legal trades and hopefully plant the seeds of an industry that is long over due. The writer of the article really shouldn't be surprised at the sight of garbage picking in a third world. I've seen a LOT worse. But sights like those grow into norm once you live in the area and learn the reasons behind their actions. Our term for their life line is black market, I think this term in itself is wrong. Exploiting the poor is wrong but unless we do something immediate about it it won't stop until the poor finally gain power as well. It's a slowly rising economy that seems like it will be fine though it has a rough start. Just my opinion.