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mexicoliving
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Posts: 100
Registered: 3-1-2009
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The Chatarra Project: a plastic bottle waste awareness project.
Hey everyone, you all were a great support last year during the Baja Walk, so we wanted to keep you up to date on this summers project.
Summer is coming on quick here in San Felipe, and the whole place rolls up from the heat. Most of members have migrated north, so Rachel and I are
looking for a way to explore Baja and help Baja in some manner.
Last year, while we were walking the Baja, we saw first hand the huge plastic bottle waste problem in Baja. We spent many hours, days and miles,
discussing what we could do.
We decided to create the "Baja Chatarra Project", which is a project to bring awareness to the plastic waste making it’s way into the Sea of Cortez
and the negative effect it has on the Baja environment and our lives.
We are building a boat, or rather a raft made of various reclaimed or recycled materials and floating it on pontoons of plastic waste, specifically
plastic bottles. The raft will be propelled using a 2' diameter paddle-wheel we are having constructed with two direct to axle peddle stations.
Rachel and I are going to paddle or paddle, which ever is most accurate, the finished raft approx. 600 nautical miles from San Felipe to La Paz, Baja
California. We plan to stop in many communities to distribute educational information in both Spanish and English on the damage of plastic waste and
how to help reduce and or eliminate the problem. Of course, that too will be on recycled paper.
There is a huge volume of plastic trash being thrown into the sea, or littered throughout the Baja, much of it is getting into Sea of Cortez,
interrupting the feeding of marine life (birds choke on plastic trash, plankton ingest microscopic particles of plastics, including many other marine
life) and plastics release toxins into the water.
Chatarra Project
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Gypsy Jan
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 4275
Registered: 1-27-2004
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Mood: Depends on which way the wind is blowing
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If You Post Photos
You will connect better with the people you are trying to reach.
Good luck to you, you sound like good, well-intentioned people, but you need to "jazz" up your approach.
IMHO, GJ
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow mindedness.”
—Mark Twain
\"La vida es dura, el corazon es puro, y cantamos hasta la madrugada.” (Life is hard, the heart is pure and we sing until dawn.)
—Kirsty MacColl, Mambo de la Luna
\"Alea iacta est.\"
—Julius Caesar
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mexicoliving
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Posts: 100
Registered: 3-1-2009
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Thank you for the input. We are starting the jazzy part now. We have had a busy season and haven't put much into the jazz as the raft planning. Now
that the construction has started and our season is almost over we will get more focused on the outward look of the project.
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DENNIS
Platinum Nomad
Posts: 29510
Registered: 9-2-2006
Location: Punta Banda
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Who's funding this project?
Who's throwing all the plastic in the water?
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mexicoliving
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Posts: 100
Registered: 3-1-2009
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We're funding it ourselves, but of course any contributions are helpful, and that means in terms of plastic bottles, dinero, time or anything. We have
many members helping and a local metal artist is welding the paddle wheel frame and each week we all get together and de-label and clean all the
bottles. We have already collect almost half the needed bottles. Basically 2 pound of upward thrust for each liter bottle. The raft is almost 2000
pounds with crew and supplies. So, our goal is 1000 liters of plastic bottles.
As for the people throwing plastic; many people unfortunately. The biggest problem we have seen is plastic oil bottles and coke bottles thrown from
fishing pangas and from truckers. The arroyos all up and down the Baja highway have plastic bottles in them, which wash into the sea ever storm. When
we walked the Baja last year the one thing we saw more than anything else were 2 and 3 liter coke bottles filled with urine and thrown from a
vehicles.
We know you can't eliminate littering, but we can do what we can to reduce it. For instance when you drive through the State of Sonora (and others)
there are signs that state there is a $1500 peso fine for littering. We need those up and down the Baja highways.
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DENNIS
Platinum Nomad
Posts: 29510
Registered: 9-2-2006
Location: Punta Banda
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| Quote: | Originally posted by mexicoliving
one thing we saw more than anything else were 2 and 3 liter coke bottles filled with urine and thrown from a vehicles.
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That's interesting, and I shouldn't dwell on it, but I've been on Baja roads since before pavement, washing down dust with cold beer as I went, and it
never once occurred to me to pee in a bottle when all I had to do was stop the car, get out and go. I'll bet I did just that at least fifty thousand
times.
Well....it sounds as though you have a real education challenge on your hands. I wish you luck, and thanks for the quick reply.
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sancho
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Posts: 2524
Registered: 10-6-2004
Location: OC So Cal
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Excellent education effort, appalud your noble undertaking,
it wasn't too long ago that
littering was a part of the US landscape, not that is
nonexistant, but awareness , peer pressure does
have an effect. Trash disposal in Mex does not seem
to ahve a high priority. Mex is just a few yrs. back,
and hopefully will catch up. Have seen some documentaries
on the huge area of the Pacific that has a vast area
of swirling plastic debis field, the stuff never breaks
down, I've seen those portable urinals you mentioned,
I suspected that is what they were.
I assume an effort like yours has the best results with
youngsters, not the old geezer borrachos
[Edited on 5-10-2013 by sancho]
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Dave
Elite Nomad
Posts: 6005
Registered: 11-5-2002
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| Quote: | Originally posted by DENNIS
I'll bet I did just that at least fifty thousand times.
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Same here except it was last night. 
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DENNIS
Platinum Nomad
Posts: 29510
Registered: 9-2-2006
Location: Punta Banda
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| Quote: | Originally posted by Dave
| Quote: | Originally posted by DENNIS
I'll bet I did just that at least fifty thousand times.
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Same here except it was last night. |
oooooooooo.......you gonna havta have that thing checked out.
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DENNIS
Platinum Nomad
Posts: 29510
Registered: 9-2-2006
Location: Punta Banda
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| Quote: | Originally posted by sancho
peer pressure does have an effect.
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So do hundred dollar littering tickets and that won't work here while mordida is still happening, which will be like forever.
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Dave
Elite Nomad
Posts: 6005
Registered: 11-5-2002
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| Quote: | Originally posted by DENNIS
you gonna havta have that thing checked out. |
Nah...probably just needs polishing.
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durrelllrobert
Elite Nomad
Posts: 7393
Registered: 11-22-2007
Location: Punta Banda BC
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Mood: thriving in Baja
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| Quote: | Originally posted by mexicoliving
Hey everyone, you all were a great support last year during the Baja Walk, so we wanted to keep you up to date on this summers project.
Summer is coming on quick here in San Felipe, and the whole place rolls up from the heat. Most of members have migrated north, so Rachel and I are
looking for a way to explore Baja and help Baja in some manner.
Last year, while we were walking the Baja, we saw first hand the huge plastic bottle waste problem in Baja. We spent many hours, days and miles,
discussing what we could do.
We decided to create the "Baja Chatarra Project", which is a project to bring awareness to the plastic waste making it’s way into the Sea of Cortez
and the negative effect it has on the Baja environment and our lives.
We are building a boat, or rather a raft made of various reclaimed or recycled materials and floating it on pontoons of plastic waste, specifically
plastic bottles. The raft will be propelled using a 2' diameter paddle-wheel we are having constructed with two direct to axle peddle stations.
Rachel and I are going to paddle or paddle, which ever is most accurate, the finished raft approx. 600 nautical miles from San Felipe to La Paz, Baja
California. We plan to stop in many communities to distribute educational information in both Spanish and English on the damage of plastic waste and
how to help reduce and or eliminate the problem. Of course, that too will be on recycled paper.
There is a huge volume of plastic trash being thrown into the sea, or littered throughout the Baja, much of it is getting into Sea of Cortez,
interrupting the feeding of marine life (birds choke on plastic trash, plankton ingest microscopic particles of plastics, including many other marine
life) and plastics release toxins into the water.
Chatarra Project |
Teach them how to make and sell these (but don't throw the scraps in the water)
Bob Durrell
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mexicoliving
Nomad
Posts: 100
Registered: 3-1-2009
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Unfortunately the Baja 1 does not have many truck stops and those that do, are really just a wide spot in the road with no facilities or trash
cans...but even those stops are few and far between, so I can only imagine it is easier to toss a bottle than to try and find a place to pull over a
big rig.
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DENNIS
Platinum Nomad
Posts: 29510
Registered: 9-2-2006
Location: Punta Banda
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| Quote: | Originally posted by mexicoliving
Unfortunately the Baja 1 does not have many truck stops and those that do, are really just a wide spot in the road with no facilities or trash
cans...but even those stops are few and far between, so I can only imagine it is easier to toss a bottle than to try and find a place to pull over a
big rig. |
Still....I can't even imagine a Kenworth Cowboy peeing in a bottle....especially when he's whistlin' down One, or anytime for that matter.
I think you're on to some hazardous waste disposal here and you may want to reconsider the theme for your journey.
Yep...this is getting serious. 
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mexicoliving
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Posts: 100
Registered: 3-1-2009
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Here are a few images of the paddle wheel being constructed.
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DENNIS
Platinum Nomad
Posts: 29510
Registered: 9-2-2006
Location: Punta Banda
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Here's some inspiration:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWN-YZOEGcE
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monoloco
Elite Nomad
Posts: 6667
Registered: 7-13-2009
Location: Pescadero BCS
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If you get hit by foul weather on your journey, you may end up greatly contributing to the plastic garbage in the sea.
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Mulegena
Super Nomad
Posts: 2412
Registered: 11-7-2006
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You guys are really an inspiration and example of having the moxie to go forth and make a difference.
A couple things, and perhaps in order of importance:
1) I'm concerned about your craft, specifically the paddlewheel you're having built. I'm certainly not an engineer by any stretch of anybody's
imagination, but geez, it looks too small and, well, just plain flimsy. (Kinda reminds me of your little red wagon that vexed your last venture).
There, I've said it. Don't mean to put a damper on your efforts, but trusting your lives to a plastic paddle-barge out in the Sea of Cortez is a
zillion times more dangerous than dodging semis out on Mex-1. At least build a sturdy mechanism of control and propulsion.
2) Many of the folks down here do litter, that's a fact. Its understood that others will come along and pick up the plastic and aluminum cans to sell
to the recycling centers. That philosophy works, but clearly only to a very limited point.
For example: My mother-in-law walks every morning and gathers up trash. There's an old man who cleans a portion of the highway just south of Mulege
every single day. The meager revenue gleaned from the sale of these recyclables supplements a very, very spartan income for many folks. Unfortunately
more trash gets thrown out than recycled, and that's a fact, too, which makes this method of cleanup untenable, imo.
3) The schools are doing their part in educating the young people about recycling. In the elementary schools there are yearly contests of trash
pickup. Whoever brings the most in for recycling wins and is crowned the queen and king of Springtime.
It was fun running into you two (figuratively speaking) two times last summer on your trek down the peninsula. I hope you'll stop into the harbour
when your craft makes it down to Mulege. Our little town will be a good place to rest up and re-provision.
Your efforts are exceptional, and I thank you and admire you. Please be safe.
"Raise your words, not your voice. It's rain that grows flowers, not thunder." ~Rumi
"It's the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it." ~ Aristotle
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mexicoliving
Nomad
Posts: 100
Registered: 3-1-2009
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The plastic bottle we are using are de-labeled, cleaned, then placed into 3 foot diameter nylon net laundry bags, those bags are sewn shut, then those
bags are lined up inside cargo netting. The cargo nets are then sewn shut. It will be nearly impossible for us to lose the bottles.
In an effort to reduce our chances of foul weather, we have detailed charts of the coastline, a small outboard (for emergency only), couple good
anchors, and a low profile. There has also only been 10 hurricanes in Baja during the month of July since 1949. And our intention is to peddle nearly
non-stop, to reduce the time at sea.
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BajaBlanca
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Registered: 10-28-2008
Location: La Bocana, BCS
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your timing is spot on. someone told me that they heard on the radio that Mexico plans to implement trash reduction / solution techniques over the
next 4 years.
I know this is Mexico and that everything is manana BUT, the fact that the gvt is even considering fixing the problem is huge. just huge.
Here is a link to my own effort to clean our village years ago. And if you ever come and visit us, ask me to tell you the hysterical stories from
that project. Even I am amazed that I survived!
http://sites.google.com/site/cleaningupbaja/
and the Spanish version:
http://sites.google.com/site/limpiandolabaja/
Now, regarding the signs for fines, what we did here was have Les's son make us some signs that read
KEEP LA BOCANA CLEAN
A CLEAN LA BOCANA
A CLEANER LA BOCANA
and we put them up around town. Education is everything and what you are doing is to be commended! Have a safe trip.
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