ALTER TERRA: Using Trash to Clean Up Trash.(Earth Island Reports)

• Published in: Earth Island journal Vol. 34; no. 2; pp. 16 - 17
• Main Author: Romo, Oscar
• Format: Magazine Article
• Language: English
• Published: San Francisco Earth Island Institute 22-06-2019
• Subjects: Aims and objectives; Canyons; Coastal environments; Conservation; Dumping; Elevation; Employment; Environmental associations; Garbage collection; Local government; Marine conservation; Methods; Pollution; Rivers; Rodents; Smell; Solid waste disposal; Solid wastes; Trucks; Walkways; Waste disposal; Waste materials; Water pollution control; Watersheds; Mexico; Tijuana River; Pacific Ocean; California; United States > US
• ISSN: 1041-0406

In Tijuana, trash is a major problem. Government garbage trucks are in disrepair, public collection services are irregular to say the least, and few people can afford to pay for private collection. At the same time, Tijuana is still growing. All of which means that trash piles up outside of homes and businesses, lining streets, blocking sidewalks, and spilling out of dumpsters. When it gets to be too much--the physical quantity, the rodents, the smell--the waste often ends up in the dozens of illegal dumping sites dotting the coastal canyons around the city. One of them is Alter Terra, a coastal and marine conservation organization. We have been studying the flow of sediment and solid waste from higher elevation regions around Tijuana into US waterbodies for more than a decade.