Rubbish, Rubbish & More Rubbish

Rubbish, litter, trash, garbage. Call it what you will, it still means the same thing.

I have had the good fortune to travel in many parts of the world, including some parts of the developing world. Such countries have many issues to resolve, from public healthcare to housing, welfare to crime. Given such challenges, some things that more developed countries often take for granted are forgotten about.

One of these is rubbish and how to manage it. Often local governments neither invest in the required infrastructure, nor invest in the education required to teach people how to deal with waste. From my experience traveling, this is usually something that while certainly noticing at the time, it is not something that stays with me too much longer. Peru unfortunately is much more different, and not likely to drift from my memory any time soon.

Our journey through Peru, from the historical south, to the coast, the capital Lima and lastly to the north coast, coincided with a depressing growth in levels of litter pretty much everywhere we went. 

It all started not long after we crossed from Bolivia at Lake Titicaca. Of course the relatively small amounts of rubbish we saw on the roadsides and in the towns did not suddenly appear (Bolivia has its own issues to resolve with litter). However we did notice that there appeared to be a bit more on the Peruvian side as we travelled further. Approaching the famous city of Cusco and subsequently in Machu Picchu, a respite appeared as more people appeared to be employed to clean up the roads and streets.

Leaving the famous tourist spots brought an increase in rubbish. However, two things were particularly noticeable to us. One was the incredible lack of bins in the towns and populated areas (at times it was literally impossible to dispose of litter as we strolled, meaning we had to hold onto it for hours until we reached the camper van). The second was the progression whereby the main roads were no longer just dotted with single items of litter. It now seemed like simply dumping large back bags of rubbish was the done thing. Rows and rows of these would line the roads, like an unholy guard of honour as the cars sped by. Moreover, at the points where the most black rubbish bags would congregate, there would invariably stand a large government funded sign stating that littering was forbidden, and that those caught would be prosecuted and heavily fined. Not even the honesty of Geppetto could turn the hypocrisy of such a Pinocchio statement around…  

To be fair to those in the Peruvian high-command, there are always two sides to every story. While waste management solutions are a million miles from ideal in the country, the locals still choose each and every time to dump their rubbish on their own doorsteps (well on their neighbours doorsteps I suppose). On more than one occasion, we saw grown men and women throwing rubbish, in full view, with such normality and ease, that it was very apparent that this is totally normal and an acceptable thing to do in their society. Until this mentality changes, I Imagine that absolutely nothing will change in terms of waste management in the country.

As we travelled further north, the situation just snowballed. What should have been pristine beaches were just plain undesirable to visit. The sea seemed to wash up all sorts of plastic and other litter, while our foes the black bins were never far away either. Incredible deserts and huge dunes were no less forgotten, again suffering the scourge of an apathetic society and an unfunded public waste management system.

Whenever we got the chance, we would always look to pick up rubbish together. But the grim reality was that our tiny actions were a complete irrelevance to the horrible situation Peru now has itself in. For every parent picking up litter with their children, I would estimate that there are hundreds throwing litter while holding their beloved children’s hands. Everyone is different of course, but this is something that saddens me greatly.

Visiting Peru has been an amazing experience for the four of us, and for our extended family who visited us here. We have been to incredible places like Machu Picchu, the Nazca Desert, the Amazon Rainforest and the Andes Mountains. However it felt disingenuous at times to be traveling amongst such natural beauty, at the same time as the beauty of this marvelous country was being obliterated by its own people. 

I don’t have the answers to such an endemic problem. Stopping travelers to come here is certainly not the solution. All we can do as visitors really is to raise the issue until it gets the notice it desperately requires. Here’s hoping that the government in Lima starts to hear these shouts, the sooner the better. And also that the people of Peru themselves start to treat their neighbours a little bit better.

Click here to read the “Mas y Mas Amigos!” blog post