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Clean-up Peru
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Street dog feeding on garbage left by vacationists on beach in Pucusana (© Stefan Austermühle / Mundo Azul) |
In Peru, garbage collection and/or treatment is inefficient or non-existent throughout the country. People are used to throwing their garbage whereever they go and everybody does it - the white Limenian citizen throws his trash out of the window of his Mercedes and leaves the beer can on the beach.
Drive on the Pan American Highway behind
a bus for public transportation and every few minutes something flies
out of the window. People throw their garbage in front of their houses
on the street. Municipalities do not collect trash or throw the collected
garbage somewhere in the environment without any treatment or care.
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Roadside garbage dump in a coastal wetland (© Stefan Austermühle / Mundo Azul) |
The reasons for this behaviour are widespread lack of information about the danger garbage poses to human and environmental health, ignorance and a general lack of environmental awareness, as well as a lack of respect for nature. Clean-up activities, long-term, broad scale environmental and sanitary education, the improvement of waste treatment and recycling, as well as strategies to avoid garbage, are the answers needed on a personal, local, regional and national level.
Why do we need to clean up Peru?
Garbage accumulates!
Garbage stays in the environment for decades - especially in the Peruvian desert. Generally, it does not disappear until it is collected by someone. Therefore garbage accumulates in the environment. Many urban areas in Peru are covered with garbage.
Wind transports garbage over land. Garbage can be found in great quantities on the marine floor, in the water and on the beaches.
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For example, it is estimated that in each square mile of the worlds ocean, an average of 46,000 pieces of plastic garbage can be found floating in the water. Each day worldwide, 8 million pieces of trash are thrown into the ocean. About 70% of this garbage accumulates on the ocean floor, the rest floats in the sea or is washed ashore.
Garbage kills!
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Animals ingest plastic garbage, because it
looks similar to their natural food. Plastic bags floating in the water
look like jellyfish, being the prey of marine turtles. Birds feed on
little plastic pellets resembling small crabs or plankton organisms.
They also feed their young with plastic. The ingested plastic blocks
the intestines, animals feel full and stop eating and finally, they
starve to death. There are reports of at least 162 marine species that
suffer deaths from ingested waste particles. Annually around 100,000
marine mammals worldwide are supposed to die because of ingestion of
plastic waste - 30,000 of them being sea lions. Worldwide, an estimated
700,000 to 1 million marine birds die because of waste ingestion. Birds
use plastic garbage to build their nests. These garbage nests may retain
rainwater and cause the death of the young.
Garbage causes wounds, pain and suffering!
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Lobo chusco, gravemente herida por un suncho de plastico (© Enrique Alberto Crespo / Centro Nacional Patagónico) |
Garbage on beaches and near the shoreline is a danger for beach tourists. Glass or corroded metal may cause serious wounds when stepping on them while swimming in the ocean.
Lost or discarded fishing nets drift for many years in the oceans continuing to catch fish and other marine life. Animals that become entangled in garbage will try to set themselves free and while doing so may suffer serious wounds, which consequently will become infected, causing death or the loss of extremities. But in general, the animals strangle themselves to death or drown.
Garbage is a threat to biodiversity!
The annual death of millions of marine and terrestrial animals because of their contact with human garbage is a additional threat to wildlife conservation.
Garbage releases toxic substances into the environment!
Los pescadores peruanos por ejemplo están acostumbrados a botar las botellas de aceite de motor, así como los filtros usados de sus motores al mar, Los restos de los hidrocarburos dentro de estos frascos contaminan al mar. Igualmente boten a las pilas de radios y de otros equipos al mar. En solo una semana se recuperaron en una actividad de limpieza submarina en el puerto de Pucusana más de 400 filtros de aceite y más de 3,500 pilas altamente tóxicas del fondo marino.
Garbage dumps are a health hazard!
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Unauthorized garbage dump on coastal cliff in Pucusana - cleaned up in 2005 by Mundo Azul (© Stefan Austermühle / Mundo Azul) |
Garbage dumps are a breeding ground for insect and rat populations, which will transport infectious diseases. Garbage dumps are also feeding grounds for street dogs - another important carrier of diseases (The solution is not to kill the street dogs, but to clean up the waste dumps).
Garbage in the water causes great economic losses because of damaged
nets and ship engines!
Fishing nets can wrap around propellers, anchors or drive shafts, plastic sheeting and plastic bags can clog cooling water intakes, and lost nets or lines can entangle vessels. In Shetland, 92 % of the fishermen reported the catch of garbage. 69 % of the fishermen have suffered contamination of their catch causing economical losses of up to 2000 pounds in each case. It is estimated that repairs of ship propellers and engines caused by trash may be between £ 6,000 and £ 30,000 anually. Total annual economic damage for the Shetland fishing fleet is estimated between £ 492,000 and £ 2,460,000. 58 % of the fishermen of Newport, Oregon, indicated problems with garbage causing average annual losses of US$ 2,725 per boat. Japanese ship insurance companies pay an average of US$ 50 million for ship repairs caused by trash floating in the ocean. In 1998, the British Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) assisted more than 200 ships, whose propellers had become entangled. The annual cost of these rescue operations was around £ 900,000.
Garbage on beaches causes economic losses in tourism destinations. Regular beach clean-ups are needed in many coastal communities and they are expensive. Total clean-up costs of 64 British fishing communities are around £ 2.9 million. Weekly clean-ups of a six kilometer long beach in the community of Orange County in California produces a cost of $US 350,000 per year.
What Mundo Azul is doing and how you can help:
Home
Upcomming events
Report on 2003 Pucusana underwater clean-up
and beach clean-up
Report on 2005 Pucusana terrestrial
clean-up
How to organize a clean-up event
Special guidelines for underwater
clean-ups
"Stop the Poison" Campaign
Download: Report: "Human Rights and Contamination" (PDF - english)
