Great examples do exist!

After arriving in Bangladesh after a hard trip through India, we quickly noticed that something was different. Especially once we arrived at a local market to buy some fresh fruits. Usually when one buys vegetables, fruits, meat or fish, a plastic bag is the most common thing for packaging. In Bangladesh, you much rather get all of these goods in a simple paper bag, which is made out of old newspapers or old office notes (depending on the bag size). It really looks quite neat as well.
Of course, we were more than interested in the reason for this because – as already said – it was an uncommon way of packaging, especially in a third world country (no offense). After speaking to some students, we were told that the government of Bangladesh imposed a total ban on plastic bags back in 2002. Then, studies of the huge floods between 1988 and 1998 showed, that the major culprit for these flooding’s were discarded plastic bags which choked the drainage system in Dhaka and other large cities. So it might not have been an environmental issue but more a life-saving one. In the end it doesn’t matter. Fact is, plastic bags are banned in Bangladesh.

It was so surprising to us, that Bangladesh is the leading edge on that topic. Up to this day, some other countries followed this great example (like for example Rwanda, Somalia, South Africa and Kenya) and hopefully others will do too.

Others should follow.

Have a look at other countries all over South East Asia (and the world) like Cambodia or Laos. The roadsides are full of plastic bags, which last for decades … look at the markets after a busy day – it looks horrible! Sure, someone will clean it up but in the end all the bags end up somewhere at the town outskirts, ready to get blown away with the wind in all direction. Or they litter it straight into the river, which leads into the ocean. And then we get huge plastic gyre like the one in the North Pacific, better known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. That can’t be the right way to go, can it?!

So yes, Bangladesh has a lot of other issues to tackle but the plastic ban is a great example into the right direction.

You may have noticed the label “Made in Bangladesh” in garments from well known brands. Well, RMG (Ready Made Garments) is the second largest industry in Bangladesh (first is Jute production) … After reading an article in “Daily Star” – which was the only English newspaper in the country – we decided to have a look at some of these tanneries in Dhaka. Tanneries are the places where raw hides are turned into soft leather … for shoes, bags and jackets which will then be sold in Western countries (for a lot of cash of course).

Getting There.

Getting to Hazaribagh turned out to be very easy since we had a piece paper with our desired destination written in Bangla language. The Rickshaw cycler just nodded and had a kick started his vehicle … We passed the Christian cemetery, a quiet corner in this busy city (we visited it on another day but this is reserved for a different blog post) and soon after, we were stuck in traffic yet again. It’s very common in Dhaka, so you we had plenty of time to see what was going on in this part of the city. Some streets are huge, lined with beautiful trees and monuments in the middle of roundabouts. Beggars approach you constantly when waiting for the traffic to move.

Tip:

• Beware of donations! If you give one beggar some money you can be sure that others will follow. They will be there in seconds and this can really be annoying at times … after all, we’re not a bank ready to give out micro-credits.

The closer you get to the area of the tanneries the worse the smell gets. Why? Well, if the hides are still raw, the smell can be unbearable because you literally smell the rotten flesh. And once you are really close, you can also smell (and see) the chemicals which are used to transform a hide into a fine piece of leather. The open sewers along the roads are full of colour. That day, it black & blue. Anyway, so we finally got there but some of the tanneries refused to let us in to have a look. Others were very keen to show us around, so we got off the Rickshaw and started to walk around.

The first thing you notice when you walk through the streets of Hazaribagh is the all-pervasive stench of tanning chemicals. According to the Department of Environment, the tanneries discharge 22.000 cubic meters of untreated liquid toxic waste daily into the rivers, gutters and canals that run alongside in the roads of Hazaribagh. Toxins are also leaching into groundwater.

Working Conditions.

Workers are handling the skins without any kind of protection. All the toxic wastewater eventually makes its way into the Buriganga River, which is considered to be Dhaka’s lifeline. Thousands of people depend on the river daily for bathing, washing clothes, irrigation of food and transportation of goods. The river has suffered extreme biodiversity loss and has now turned black.It’s in the discussion that something needs to be done with all this chemical waste but the people responsible turn a blind eye to this rampant pollution and the working conditions as long as so much money is involved in that business. It’s clear that working under these conditions comes at a price: a lot of the workers suffer from asthma, skin diseases and even cancer.

A worker at a tannery gets about 6.000 Taka (which equals about 60 €) per moths. For this money, they have to work 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. Unbelievable! … Very often, you’ll also see child worker who are not far beyond their 13th birthday.

We were told that the workers are well aware of their exposure to all these chemical substances but they can’t do much; first of all they’re happy to have a job – even though it’s badly paid. But at least they have a job. Protesting won’ help either because the police will simply step in and they don’t care if people get hurt or even shot. the workers  can leave their jobs , because another bunch of people would take over the next day, Bangladesh has an abundant mass of labourers, so as a worker you don’t have many choices: either work until you get sick or sleep on the streets.

Resume.

The smell made us sick for the rest of the day and we left the area a bit despondent … these people work so hard in such dangerous conditions and yet they still manage to smile, say hello and respond with a laugh when you take their picture. What can we say? People in Bangladesh are really tough cookies!

Workers process rawhides with toxic chemicals such as chromium, sulfur and manganese to name a few. They handle leather skins soaked with acids and dyes with their bare hands in poorly ventilated tanneries where often the only light coming in is through cracks and openings in the walls.

There are about 200 leather tanneries in the Hazaribagh district of Dhaka, the capital. Some use modest technology and machinery, but most operate as they did decades ago and release untreated toxic chemical waste near residential areas.

From the slums of Bangladesh to the fashion houses of the world – luxury leather goods from Dhaka generate sales of more than 1 billion US$ per year.

Each year 14 million raw hides are processed into leather in Bangladesh – the leather is then exported to top fashion labels in dozens of countries around the world. The country is a major supplier of leather to Europe, with Italy being the largest importer of Bangladeshi leather.

A man scrapes the inside of a cow skin to remove small parts to make it smoother. He uses a special designed sharp tool.

The Thousand Gardens, which is what Hazaribagh means in Bengali, is crammed with tanneries, big and small; one-room tin shacks where many tannery workers live.

Working at the tanneries in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Many children work 12 or even 14 hours a day at one of the leather tanneries in Dhaka, considerably more than the five-hour limit for adolescents in factory work established by Bangladeshi law.

As the name already implies, we’re talking about a smoking mountain. A smoking rubbish mountain to be exact. Back in 1980 around 20.000 people lived on and from this garbage dump until the government cleared the slum area in 1995. Families were banished, “houses” demolished and the removal of “Smokey Mountain” could begin. New buildings were built, yet it was unable to live there due to the gas.

We visited the Philippines in 2008 and wanted to see this gigantic garbage dump ourselves. Here are some impressions:

The area around “Smokey Mountain” in Manila.

In the most populous Manila slums, such as “Happyland” or “Aroma” – occupation runs at 75.000 – 80.000 people per km2. One of the densest on earth.

“Smokey Mountain” is a slum area constructed atop a landfill in Manila, has joined the likes of poor urban districts in Rio de Janeiro, Johannesburg, and Mumbai as a tourist destination.

Collection the garbage around “Smokey Mountain”.

Garbage piles up everywhere around the “Smokey Mountain” area in Manila.

One of the many garbage trucks in Manila.

The train tracks go right through the slum area.

Slum area around “Smokey Mountain”.

What is the Plastiki anyway?

The Plastiki is an 18 m long catamaran made out of 12.500 reclaimed plastic bottles and other waste products. The name might sound familiar to book worms & adventurers…its origin comes from one of the most famous rafts in the world. Do you remember the adventures of Thos Heyerdahl? He crossed the Pacific ocean in 1947 on the Kon-Tiki. The parts that I remember the most out of the book were the stories about the crews encounter with giant squids and sharks. For me, there is almost no greater classic among adventure books than this 104-day-long raft ride from South America to Polynesia. 6 men fighting the elements on a hand-made balsa wood vesel. Insane! As soon as you start reading the book, you won’t be able to put it down! Anyway, now back to The Plastiki ;)

The Plastiki – a catamaran made out of plastic bottles. Photo credit © The Plastiki

The crew.

Skipper: Jo Royle
Co-skipper: David Thompson
Expedition diver: Olav Heyerdahl
Filmmakers: Max Jourdan & Vern Moen
Expedition leader: David de Rothschild

The Plastiki crew. Photo credit © The Plastiki

The voyage across the pacific.

In March of 2010, the crew set their sails. But before they did so, the boat was tested for 3 days to make sure she was seaworthy. When she was, their starting point was San Francisco and by the end of July 2010, The Plastiki sailed into Darling Harbour in Sydney. It crossed the Pacific ocean in about four months with more than 10.000 km behind them. It was planned that during the trip, the crew would pass several sites of ecological importance (like the Great Pacific Garbage Patch) or which were susceptible to environmental issues (caused by global warming).

The map of the voyage. Photo credit © The Plastiki

So what did they eat?

This is an interesting question…you might think that the crew ate fish every single day. I mean they sailed across the Pacific ocean, right?! Well, think again…Quote: The Plastiki crew have managed to catch only 3 fish in 40 days, whilst during the Kon-Tiki expedition (over 40 years ago), the crew ate freshly caught fish every day and couldn’t enter the water for fear of sharks. The Plastiki crew have seen no sharks during their expedition. What does that tell us? Overfishing, overfishing & more overfishing…

So why did David de Rothschild want to sail across the Pacific on a plastic boat?

Well, he wanted to do it for a couple of very good reasons: To demonstrate the amazing things people can achieve when recycling their junk & at the same time to show people what happens when they don’t…

Quoted from the website:

• It is estimated that almost all of the marine pollution in the world is comprised of plastic materials. The average proportion varied between 60% and 80% of total marine pollution.

• In many regions in the northern and southern Gyres, plastic materials constitute as much as 90 to 95% of the total amount of marine debris.

• Scientists estimate that every year at least 1 million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals and sea turtles die when they entangle themselves in plastic pollution or ingest it.

• According to Project Aware, 15 billion pounds of plastic are produces in the U.S. every year, and only 1 billion pounds are recycled. It is estimated that in excess of 38 billion plastic bottles and 25 million Styrofoam cups end up in landfill and although plastic bottles are 100% recyclable, on average only 20% are actually recycled.

My opinion.

I think that this project is absolutely great! Showing people, what you can do with recycled stuff and documenting the whole story around it is fantastic. The Plastiki is a one-of-a-kind project and a good example for other people. Well done!

The Plastiki sailing into the sunset. Photo credit © The Plastiki

How to get rid of them.

So what do you do with old subways? You could either cut them up with machines and reuse the metal. But what if the walls and floors are polluted with asbestos (used as fireprotection)? Well, just throw it into the Atlantic!? Enraged environmentalists couldn’t believe this idea. What about nature!? Well, exactly that was the point: nature should profit from this “weird” idea.

That can’t be good.

Today, more that 1.200 old subways lie on the bottom if the Atlantic and even the environmentalists agree with this crazy plan. You’re probaly thinking the same thing I thought at this point: “So you can’t reuse the metal because of the asbestos, yet throwing it into the ocean is ok?!” Well, here’s how the situation looks: All the wheels, windows, doors and lubricants are cleared off the subways until only the covering is left. The asbestos remains but many researchers have found out, that it’s no danger to the under water life (I’m still not convinced but ok…). Just off the coast of New Jersey, Delaware and Virgina, huge derricks then throw the skeletons into the water.

Their new life.

As soon as the subways sunk to the ground, their new life begins. New guest arrive and settle down there. Where before there was only sand, there now is an artificial reef. Environmentalists are happy with this, yet still say that animals should live in their natural habitats…

My opinion: Out of sight, out of mind.

It’s clear that if you throw something into the water, fish and other animals will come. But (and this is a big but), why do we have the right to use the ocean as our dumping ground? Just recently I posted an article about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, and even though the subways might be more “animal friendly” than plastic, the end result is still the same: We humans want to get rid of our garbage and therefore use every possible opportunity to do that;  “Out of sight, out of mind” is all I can say to that. In the long run, it’ll all come back anyway…

Subway Graveyard. © Photo credit: Stephen Mallon.

Subway Graveyard. © Photo credit: Stephen Mallon.

Subway Graveyard. © Photo credit: Stephen Mallon.

Subway Graveyard. © Photo credit: Stephen Mallon.

Charles Moore loves the ocean, especially the widths of the pacific. This changed in 1997 when he and his crew were on their way back home from Hawaii where they had just won the third place in the “Transpac sailing race”. Moore was looking for a fast way to Los Angeles and therefore decided to take a short-cut through the so called “North Pacific Gyre” – one of the most remote places in the ocean. Most sailors avoid this route and fisherman are seen very rarely. Maybe this is because of what Charles Moore found out: the colourful flashing on the sea-surface doesn’t come from fish but plastic garbage.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch. For many people, the idea of a “garbage patch” conjures up images of an island of trash floating on the ocean. In reality, these patches are almost entirely made up of tiny bits of plastic, called micro-plastics.

The crew saw plastic parts of all sizes floating on the ocean. Moore recognized disposable razors, bottles, fasteners, CD covers, bags and shoes. “It might sound unbelievable but there was not a single clear spot around us. It didn’t matter where we looked, garbage was floating around us everywhere”, Moore remembers.

As soon as he was back home, the sailor started informing the world about “the worlds largest dumping ground”. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch in the North Pacific is the most well known example of a gigantic environmental disaster. Even experts can only guess its dramatic magnitude.

The Plastic Garbage Patch is twice the size of Texas. But where did this trash come from? Marine biologists estimate that about 80 % of the litter is from land, either dumped directly into waterways or blown into rivers and streams.

Map of the worldwide garbage vortexes. Apart from the infamous Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which is made up of plastics, chemical sludge and other marine debris drawn in by a vortex formed by rotating currents, scientists believe there are four other major gyres and associated garbage patches in the Indian Ocean, North Atlantic, South Atlantic and South Pacific. Illustration Credit: Plastiki.com.

So, does there float one large garbage-carpet between Hawaii and the USA? Or are there two (each one as large as middle Europe)? Because the majority of garbage is underneath the surface (and in depths up to 10 meters), satellite measurings can only show the vague expansion. However it is sure that there’s plastic garbage everywhere. Particularly high is the density in regions where the air current (as in the North Pacific) causes strong ocean vortexes. There are five of such vortexes that experts know of.

Water covers more than 70 % of the planet’s surface. This makes our rivers, lakes and oceans the lifeblood of our planet. Many of the animals living in these habitats may be extinct very soon. Experts say plastic trash has already killed millions of sea birds and marine mammals.

Marine debris can be very harmful to marine life in the gyre. For instance, loggerhead sea turtles often mistake plastic bags for jellies, their favorite food. Albatrosses mistake plastic resin pellets for fish eggs and feed them to chicks, which die of starvation or ruptured organs. Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Of the 225 million tons of synthetic materials (which are produced each year), approximately 10 % lands in the ocean at some point. According to the UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme) more than 100 million tons of plastic garbage float at sea.

So what can we do?

The Ocean Conservancy gives a list of 10 tips for helping out:

• Volunteer for a beach or river clean-up effort.
• Put trash in a secure, lidded receptacle – most marine debris starts out on land.
• Properly recycle everything you can in your area.
• When boating, bring your trash back to shore, and ask your marina to handle waste properly.
• Less is more: Don’t buy stuff you don’t need, and choose items that use less packaging.
• Inform and inspire your friends and co-workers to help stop marine debris at the source.
• Bring your own containers for picnics instead of using disposables. Take your own reusable bags whenever you go shopping.
• Write to companies or visit local businesses and encourage them to reuse, recycle, and generate less packaging.
• Put cigarette butts in ashtrays, not on streets, side-walks, or beaches.
• Tell Congress it’s time to stop trashing our ocean. Take action now and send an email to your representative!

Dead Bodies Floating In The Ganges River.

No place along its banks is more longed for at the moment of death by Hindus than Varanasi. It is the holiest place in Hinduism and often referred to as “the holy city of India“. Those who are lucky enough to die in Varanasi, are cremated on the banks of the Ganges & granted instant salvation. There are exceptions; pregnant women, children, holy people and people who died from a snake bite are not cremated but are lowered into the river. Sooner or later they will show up at the surface again … Everything might be holy in Varanasi but nobody bothers if a dead body floats by … and they float by quite often. This is something we have never seen before but it’s nothing special in India. We would say: “dawn of the dead reality show daily from your hotel terrace” … To some of you, these photos of corpses might be too much but this is the brutal reality.

Pollution Of The Ganges River.

Unfortunately this also means that there’s a lot of pollution: the Ganges river suffers from extreme pollution levels. Sewage from many cities along the river’s course, industrial waste and religious offerings wrapped in non-degradable plastics add large amounts of pollutants to the river as it flows through densely populated areas. The problem is that many poor people rely on the river on a daily basis for bathing, washing, and cooking.

The people in Varanasi don’t seem to care about the pollution of the Ganges – or at least often they don’t have a choice. As I said before, for many the Ganges river is the only opportunity to take a shower. Additionally Varanasi (already a city of millions) is visited by many thousands of pilgrims each year who want to take a holy dip in the Ganges. Only this city releases around 200 million litres of untreated human sewage into the river each day…

The swiftly moving Ganges in Varanasi, especially in its upper reaches, where a bather has to grasp an anchored chain in order to not be carried away, is considered especially purifying.

The Ghats in Varanasi are always full with people, bathing, washing or praying. What the Ganges removes, however, is not necessarily physical dirt, but symbolic dirt; it wipes away the sins of the bather, not just of the present, but of a lifetime.

A snake charmer playing with an Indian Cobra in Varanasi. Snake charming is the practice of pretending to hypnotise a snake by playing an instrument called “pungi”. Although snakes are able to sense sound, they lack the outer ear that would enable them to hear the music. They follow the pungi that the snake charmer holds with their heads. The snake considers the person and pungi a threat and responds to it as if it were a predator.

Family fun in the Ganges river. Hindus consider the waters of the Ganges to be both pure and purifying. Nothing reclaims order from disorder more than the waters of the Ganges.

Man shaving his hair on the Ghats before taking a “holy dip” in the Ganges. Shaving the head before visiting the Ganges is thought to bring spiritual purification.

A man washing his buffaloes in the Ganges in Varanasi, India.

The old city of Varanasi extends about two kilometres back from the river and is a maze of alleyways and streets. The view from a boat floating along the Ganges river is breathtaking.

A dead body floating in the Ganges river in Varanasi. No place along the banks of the Ganges river is more longed for at the moment of death by Hindus than Varanasi, the Great Cremation Ground. Those who are lucky enough to die in Varanasi, are cremated on the banks of the Ganges, and are granted instant salvation. If the death has occurred elsewhere, salvation can be achieved by immersing the ashes in the Ganges.

If the ashes have been immersed in another body of water, a relative can still gain salvation for the deceased by journeying to the Ganges, if possible during the lunar “fortnight of the ancestors” in the Hindu calendar month of Ashwin (September or October).

In Hinduism, the river Ganges is considered sacred and is personified as a goddess known as Ganga. It is worshipped by Hindus who believe that bathing in the river causes the remission of sins and liberation from the cycle of life and death. Pilgrims travel long distances to immerse the ashes of their kin in the precious water of the Ganges.

Earth’s treasures are unevenly spread; some lie deep in the crust (unattainable for humans), others slumber near the surface. This means bad luck for environmentalists and blessings for the extractive industry. They approach with heavy machines and rip the landscape apart.

The American photographer J. Henry Fair displayed some of these scars in a fantastic photo series called “Industrial Scars”, for which he is well known around the world. Apart from being a photographer, he is also an environmental activist and co-founder and director of the Wolf Conservation Center (WCC).  The WCC promotes wolf conservation by teaching about wolves, their relationship to the environment, and the human role in protecting their future. He works for environmental organizations such as NRDC, Rainforest Alliance or Greenpeace.

About his work he states:

“My work is a response to my vision of society. I see our culture as being addicted to petroleum and the unsustainable consumption of other natural resources, which seems to portend a future of scarcity. My vision is of a different possibility, arrived at through careful husbandry of resources and adjustment of our desires and consumption patterns toward a future of health and plenty. To gear our civilization toward sustainability does not necessitate sacrifice today, as many naysayers would argue, but simply adjustment. There are many societies existing at present that have a standard of living at least as high as ours while consuming and polluting a fraction of what is the norm in the United States. As an artist with a message, one asks oneself: how do I translate my message to my medium such that it will effect the change I want?
At first, I photographed “ugly” things; which is, in essence, throwing the issue in people’s faces. Over time, I began to photograph all these things with an eye to making them both beautiful and frightening simultaneously, a seemingly irreconcilable mission, but actually quite achievable given the subject matter.”

Here are some of his photos (my personal favourite):

The forested mountains, valleys and streams that once stood here are now buried beneath the overburden from mountaintop removal coal mining. It is leveled and then sprayed with a mixture of grass seed and fertilizer – Kayford Mountain, West Virginia.

Removal of Overburden from blasting – Kayford Mountain, West Virginia

Caustic lake – Darrow, Louisiana.

Outlet pipe from phosphate waste impoundment – Lakeland, Florida.

Sulphur stacks at an oil sands upgrader facility – Fort Murray, Canada.

The inside of a holding tank at an oil sands upgrader facility – Fort McMurray, Canada.