On Repurposing, Reusing, Reducing and Refusing to Use

When the environment wars began the Big Conversation was simple enough, just focus on the 3 R's they said. But a lot has changed. The science came in and as the blind man said “It ain't pretty”. Environment's problem of course is not just a planet thing, it's got a lot to do with humans. We who brought nature to its knees in search of a better life for us and ours. We call it unsustainable development. 

But some people are trying. These days I have the privilege of spending time with a young man who began his career with us at ET. Ryan Allard now has a doctorate in modern transportation systems or some such. Mine has been time well spent. Urged on by the amount of things our talks take in, yours truly has discovered that while Tobago may not be the favourite to produce the definitive silver bullet to global warming, in practice small communities like ours can provide unique test-bed conditions. Which brings us to the 4 R's, re-purposing, reusing, reducing and refusing to use.

Plastics and wood are the poster children as regards repurposing in Tobago, though big sister Trinidad certainly has enough for both. Plastic is now ubiquitous enough locally and (thanks to all who made it so) PET on the whole needs no pitch for ridding it from our rivers, shores and seas. What plastics remedial work does need though is a locale – a community who can demonstrate the stuff can be used responsibly. And Tobago can be that place. Its incoming volume of PET while largely unquantified is low enough to be reused for fence posts, box drains, roofing and even as a material component for road building. Tobago you see is at that place in its development where things are relatively rustic or in some cases rundown enough, for the most modern of approaches to be considered. 

Wood re-purposing in Tobago to my knowledge has not been tried by anyone except perhaps a particular guest house owner cum farmer who tried to make mulch from cutoffs. He stopped when the power-takeoff on the tractor he rented broke. That was ten years ago. The House of Assembly through its Agriculture Division may have discussed something similar also, though odds are when the budget for discussion lunches dried up so did the initiative. Still, ongoing practice in Tobago find TTEC clearing a 10M swathe under every power-line passing through the countryside – and then paying to dump it in the landfill at Studley Park. There's also a steady stream of some pretty valuable old timber hitting street corners every day as Tobagonians toss out their old (cabinets, presses and kitchen tables) to make room for new designer plastic wood. Would (pardon the pun) Tobago could get of its collective butt and find a use for such a beautiful resource. This last cannot be hard, Tobago still has its fair share of artisans in woodworking and a ready market in the holiday villa sector.

Reusing. What can Tobago have to reuse? You'd be surprised. Food waste – to serve pig or even duck farms, old tires to get chunked (thanks to SWMCOL) for insertion to wherever, steel or metal discards that can be harvested for resale, or stockpiled until it can be sold or melted. The two big opportunities here are old appliances and e-waste from computer. “Big opportunity” as Donald Trump might say.

Reducing waste might require a different approach given Tobago's minute size speaking 'consumeratively' and to coin a bad term. Waste in Tobago might be defined as doing things wrong, inefficiently and or ineffectively. Take for instance the fuel cost to carry back empty shipping containers – because no mechanisms legislatively or physically exist to fill them. Currently these costs are carried by the business community (and passed on to the consumer). But not everything requires a programme. Reducing waste can also occur when a shopper walks with his or her own bag. So to make the argument once more, achieving a reduction mindset might merely need revisiting bad practice.

Refusing to use is where the Tobago community might score big in the sustainable development games. We are still relatively unsophisticated in that many members of the community have the knowledge of life and life skills that many 'developed' places no longer place value upon. A test case in point may be the once traditional making of toys (kites, scooters), actions that bind families, communities, reduce or even forestalls crime not to mention reduce obesity and improve health. Again, this has been touched upon (thanks JD Elder and others) before. 

At this point I do need to make a plug for Environment Tobago. We in the NGO, having recognized the waste, rot and pollution of all that this community once held dear, have joined forces with others in mainstream civil society. You see the solutions, as do the problems, lie with us (the humans).