Mulle ei meeldi kilekotid
kohe üldsegi mitte ning ka Eestis olles vaatan kilekotte ostvaid
sõpru mõnikord pisut ärritunud pilguga. Teadsin varasemast Peruu
reisist, et kilekottide vältimine saab ilmselt päris raske olema ja
nii ta läkski. Ugandas pakitakse poodides kõik asjad kilekottidesse
ning suuremates supermarketites on kassas lisaks müüjale veel
eraldi pakendaja, kes kärmelt ostetud asju kottidesse topib. Ka
kõige pisemat asja ostes pakitakse see koti sisse (üksik veepudel
või pakendatud suhkur vms). Püüdsin võimalikult kiiresti õppida
luganda keeles ütlema, et ma ei soovi kilekotti. Saagala kaveera!
Selgus, et selline tõrkumine ajab paljud müüjad segadusse. Kord
ehmatas müüjanna vist päris ära, sest neljast ostetud toiduainest
jõudis ta kassast läbi lüüa ainult kaks.
Põhjus, miks see kilekotimajandus mulle veel eriti
vastukarva on – prügi ja sealhulgas plastikut põletatakse
tänavatel ja hoovides ning teeääred on kilekottidest tulvil. Olen
aru saanud, et mõned ugandalased isegi nõuavad igas poes kilekotti,
sest neil on selleks justkui õigus. Suurte ostukeskuste
ostlemisejärgne kontroll tähendab seda, et pead turvamehele tšekki
näitama ja siis ta justkui arvestaks omaette, et kas sul ikkagi on
kotis ainult need asjad, mis tšeki peal kirjas. Turvaväravatest
ilma selle konkreetse poe kilekotita läbi minnes küsitakse
mõnikord, et kas müüja tegi midagi valesti, et ta kilekotti ei
andnud?!
Naaberriigis Ruandas on kilekottid näiteks keelatud
– nende müük ja ka riiki sisse toomine. Siia lennates oli
vahepeatus Kigalis ning lennukisalongis anti teada, et väljuvad
reisijad peaksid oma kilekotid lennukisse jätma. See oli kui muusika
mu kõrvadele. Minu arvates väga hea otsus riigi poolt mõttetut
kilekotiäri piirata ning keskkonda ja inimesi säästa. Sellise
lähenemise osas pole Ruanda maailmas sugugi üksi.
Mis saab kasutatud kilekottidest? Tõenäoliselt need
kas visatakse maha või põletatakse kuskil koos muu prügiga ära.
Seejuures eralduvad gaasid pole sugugi mõnusad. Plastpudelite osas
tundub seis parem olevat, sest neid korjatakse kokku ja
taaskasutatakse. Siin olles muutub minu jaoks aina kurvemaks ja mõistmatumaks
prügi sorteerimisest ja taaskasutamisest loobumine riikides, kus
selle jaoks on loodud vajalikud tingimused ja infrastruktuur.
Mõnikord tehakse plastikust ka kunsti, näiteks nii
nagu alloleval pildil...
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I do not like plastic bags at all and
even in Estonia I sometimes cast a concerned look towards friends of
mine who buy plastic bags. From a previous trip to Peru I already
anticipated that avoiding plastic bags might become difficult and
this fear was confirmed. In Uganda all purchases are packaged into
plastic bags and next to a cashier in every bigger supermarket there
is a person hired to package all your products into plastic bags.
Usually it seems that their task is to maximize the number of plastic
bags used. Even if you just buy one bottle of water or some snacks,
they would still like to pack it into a separate bag. One of the
first things I learned in Luganda was Saagala kaveera! Meaning that I
do not want a bag. It came out that this kind of negation confuses
quite many sellers. One time a cashier was so overwhelmed by my
request that she even forgot to register 2 out of 4 items at the cash
register.
The main reason why I am strongly
against this plastic bag industry – garbage, including all sorts of
plastic, is being burnt on the roadsides and the streets are full of
plastic bags. I have understood now that some Ugandans even demand a
plastic bag in every shop because they feel that they have a right to
do so. In big supermarkets the receipts are being checked at the exit
and then the security guard kind of estimates whether you have the
same items in your bags as are registered on the receipt. When
exiting through the security gates without a plastic bag from the
same shop, the guard sometimes asks whether the cashier made a
mistake by not giving me a plastic bag?!
On the other hand, the
neighbouring country Rwanda has banned the usage and import of
plastic bags. My flight to Uganda had a short stop
in Kigali and the flight attendants announced that the exiting
passengers should leave their plastic bags in the airplane. Now that
was music to my ears. I think that it is a rather good decision for a
country to limit the pointless plastic business and spare the
environment from all that polyethylene and plastic-burning-fumes. In
doing so, Rwanda is not the only country at all.
What happens with the used
plastic bags around here? Probably they get thrown on the streets or
burnt somewhere with the rest of the garbage. The fumes from such
small piles of burning garbage are not pleasant at all. The situation
seems to be a bit better when it comes to plastic bottles because
they are collected and apparently recycled and then sold to Europe
and China:
The time here makes me
even more sad and bewildered towards persons who choose not to
sort garbage or recycle their waste despite the facilities and
infrastructure available in their countries.
Sometimes waste can also
be turned into art, like on the picture below...
 |
| At KLA Art 14 in Kampala, The Boda Boda Project. |
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