Amanda, Greenpeace cook for the MV Esperanza.
One might think that after seeing so much waste in the sea there
would not be too much left elsewhere, but there is. Many of the
countries surrounding the Mediterranean Sea have no working system
for recycling and reducing the waste they produce. So they burn
it!! This is creating even more problems with dangerous
emissions.
On our ships we have very careful waste management and we live
by the words: reduce, reuse, recycle. Beautiful words and a
necessity for clean living not only on this ship but also on the
planet.
We are presently in Tarragona in Spain, about a one-hour train
ride from Barcelona. We are here to create awareness, to spread
information about how toxics get released into nature, and
hopefully to inspire people to act against it.
We have had a number of open-ship days, and Sunday at one point
as I looked out from the ship there was a loooong line of people
waiting to come and see our ship and hear about our work.
Brilliant!! There are some wonderful, hardworking Spanish
volunteers here to help us show people around and to tell them
about the ship and our work. Usually this is something I love to do
myself but my Spanish is more or less limited to "Ya soy la
cusinera" (I am the cook) and I'm afraid I won't inspire anyone
with those words.
Tuesday (October 22) was a different kind of day; Greenpeace
made a non-violent direct action (as we often do) at the Constantí
incinerator in Tarragona, Spain. Thirty-three activists blocked the
gates. This place is a good example of a bad thing: these monstrous
burners should not be allowed. The air is filled with a strong
toxic smell, there is even a sign that warns of radioactive
waste(!!) and everything but the kitchen sink is getting
burned.
The toxin-filled smoke is released into the air and the ashes
into the soil. The toxins now have an easy way to reach the ground
waters as well and - voila! -- they have managed to pollute every
element of the nature.
So what is in these emissions, one might ask? Well some
substances identified in smoke and waste from incinerators are
heavy metals, PCBs and dioxin, just to give a brief picture. And it
is not a pretty picture. These toxic substances are going straight
into the food chain.
How can the politicians here live with this system? Some people
even promote
incinerators as a green option to solve the growing waste
problem created by modern living. But you do not get rid of it. You
create an even bigger problem and greater health problems. All when
the solution quite easy. We need to:
Reduce Reuse Recycle.
On the ship we have our trash cleaned out, compressed and
sorted, but our garbage space is getting full and we need to get
rid of some of it so we asked a police officer,
who was passing by the ship, if he knew of a way we could
responsibly dispose of it. He answered: there's an incinerator just
a bit away from here. Well, I don't think so!!!
Amanda Bjur is the cook on board the
MV Esperanza for the Mediterranean Toxics-free Tour.