Recycling Organic Waste in La Paz

By Fabiola Osuna

Can we live without garbage? Litter is exclusively human. In nature there is no garbage, everything is reused. The lifeless bodies of all living organisms and their waste are permanently processed by decomposers (bacteria, fungi, protozoa, algae, nematodes, arthropods and other small insects), that transform it into nutriments that sustain life on Earth. It’s a cyclical process where death is constantly turned into life.

When we throw at the dump which "no longer serves us", we're interrupting this vital cycle. Since the Second Industrial Revolution (second half of the Nineteenth Century), we’ve been accumulating substances derived from petroleum and other synthetic materials that decomposers cannot digest but after a very long time (for example, plastic can take up to 500 years to degrade). These materials literally poison plants and animals while remain in the environment. Therefore, rubbish dumps are "time bombs", a latent danger that grows day by day.

What can we do about it? As specie, we must seek our waste to become increasingly biodegradable. As individuals, we have the moral responsibility to reuse our stuff as much as possible, repair it before discarding it and recycle its components as things no longer meet the purpose for which were made.

About forty percent of municipal waste is completely biodegradable: peels of fruits and vegetables, grass clippings and garden plant leaves, mainly. Unfortunately, these organic by products are commonly mixed with non-biodegradable waste, making impossible to reuse them.

Meyibó (www.meyibo.com) is a local company that transforms biodegradable waste into organic fertilizers. "Our goal is returning to Earth a bit of the whole it gives us," says his owner, Mauricio Acle. "Recycling is the essence of organic fertilizers. We produce vegetable nutriments from organic wastes in order to obtain healthy products that preserve the environment. In contrast, chemical fertilizers destroy wild life, pollute soil and water and harm human health on the long term”.

Established in La Paz since 2004, Meyibó recycles tons of organic matter that is turned into compost and worm castings. "Compost is made by millions of bacteria, fungi and other decomposers, while worm castings are the excrete of earthworms. Both are excellent soil improvers that add nutrients and beneficial organisms to the soil, retain moisture and even prevent the attack of some pests".

"In Baja California Sur soils are very poor and predominantly sandy, therefore, they need to be improved for the production of vegetables and ornamental plants. In this State large quantities of organic fertilizers are imported at very high prices, when we have all the ingredients to produce them locally, therefore cheaper. What we need is to spread the right production techniques". In that sense, Meyibó gives workshops and training on composting, vermiculture and urban agroecology for domestic, rural and commercial purposes.

"Each one of us can learn to recycle the waste from our homes and grow our own organic vegetables (even without a garden), is rewarding, relaxing and fun. Humans need to learn to live in harmony with nature, on that depends our future stay in this planet".

Ten year-old students in workshop

Students from San Ignacio proudly showing their diplomas on vermiculture.