Disposable items SUCK - The beginning of a personal project

Not the most eloquent way of expressing myself, but I have a confession: plastic really bothers me - Now more than ever.

Living in Teguc, I have unfortunately become used to disposing everything I come in contact with.. Well, that is, everything that is waste in my life is enevatably thrown away. In my home, we do not have the option of recycling, and when you live with 15 people, you really begin to notice waste. Our trash cans can easily pile up after one day.

In a city without clean water, bottled water is purchased on a regular basis. Not just by my friends, but everyone in the city- A city of 2,000,000 people. Imagine now, that 2,000,000 people buy one bottle of water a week (and this is under estimating A LOT). Now imagine a landfill with JUST plastic bottle waste from one month. Go on.. Imagine it... I'll wait........

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Done?


Now, on top of that, think of every other item you daily throw away or recycle in this landfill as well.



Now times that again by 2,000,000...



Here's the kick...

Imagine if you will, this city, and consider that trash is regularly burnt.

Not too pretty, is it?

In an effort to cut down waste, members in my house have attempted to reuse items, making crafts. This is great! It's been alot of fun.

I am looking into really restricting my plastic consumption. This is going to be hard. Imagine everything in your life that contains plastic.

- Let me rephrase myself -

Think of everything in your life that DOESN'T contain plastic... Not a lot..

This is going to be tough. I think eliminating plastic completely is nearly impossible. However, rather than focusing on every little item, we'll just focus on a few big things.


MISSION ONE - STOP USING PLASTIC GROCERY BAGS

As I mentioned before, I live in a house of 15 people. I love my home. ♥ We go through a lot of groceries, and we have a terrible habit of forgetting to bring grocery bags with us to the store. As well, I have not noticed anyone in my town practicing this art either. We got through 20 plastic bags a week easily. Not to mention, we go to our local corner store daily, where they love to bag every item we buy.

Bag of M&Ms? - Small bag
Prebagged eggs? - Another small bag
Bag of plastic bags? - Yep. A small bag for that too
Milk? - Oh that's cold and has condensation on the outside. DOUBLE BAG THAT ONE.

Here is my new proposed ideas - Make a reusable grocery bag OUT OF plastic bags. GENIUS! I can say this because it wasn't my idea.

Why I like it:
- You're putting waste to work. This way it will stay out of land fills (at least for a few more years)
- You're proventing the consumption of more unnecessary plastic bags
- You're not buying one of those cool hemp Trader Joe grocery bags. Although they're great and prevent the use of more plastic bags, it's still buying a new item that took energy to create, package, and ship (which equals polution, etc).
- It looks sweet and it makes you feel good when you use it!

Here's how you do it:



SUMMARY: You can iron your old plastic bags to make a multi-ply plastic. This plastic becomes sewable! You can then sew it into many different things. In this situation, we are making a grocery bag. I've even heard of them being sown into tarps and sent to Haiti.



I encourage you all to become aware of your plastic consumption.



*Hopefully this will encourage you to cut back on your daily intake.

**Stay tuned for updates and upcoming projects. Let me know if you have any ideas or want to show off ways you're cutting back on waste. I'll post your efforts :D



-Hollie

HAPPY GLOBAL BRIGADES DAY!!!!

This is where I work, the organization that I love. :) I am SOOO proud to be a part of the work being done here in Honduras, down South in Panama, and starting up in Ghana.

Watch and see the work we've accomplished this past year:

Global Brigades Day from Global Brigades on Vimeo.

Today, rethink about how you are doing your part to help those in need.. :)

Madre Virgen de Suyapa

This weekend there is a celebration in town for the Madre Virgen de Suyapa, the Virgin Mary who showed herself here in Tegucigalpa way back in the day. To celebrate this day, people from all over Honduras come to the iglesia Suyapa to pray, worship, and thank Mary for her presence.

Over the past year the church has been completely closed off. The area was so high risk for muggings (or perhaps even worse) that visitors needed special paperwork to approach the church. Priests were even being mugged. HOWEVER, due to the holiness of this time, the church was opened back up for this weekend. Jennifer, our friend Ever, and I went up to see the commotion. When would I ever get the opportunity to see inside the church again?

Roads of markets selling rosaries, figurines, and candles were set up just below the church walkways. Outside the church, families had set up camp to spend the whole week near the church u; the used blankets tied to trees and gates to create some sort of shelter. Inside the church, about half of the ground space was covered with more campers. Near the alter an evangelical sermon took place over speaker. A statue to the Virgin Suyapa was placed nearby, where a line of humble Hondurans awaited for 2 seconds in her presence.


Just down the road from the church was a fair, where we ate chocolate covered grapes, rode the ferris wheel, and listened to music.

Overall, it was a wonderfully cultural night out.