Guatemala, Mayan Collective exposes industries irresponsibility regarding solid waste

teleSUR English

*TZ´Unun Ya´ Collective has been fighting pollution for more than a decade *Divers collected more than 1,500 pounds of waste *Waste reflects the negative externalities of nearby industries *Entry into force of agreement 164-2021 will require sorting of solid waste

Transcript

00:00Guatemala Mayan Collective has denounced the irresponsibility of industries with

00:05solid waste collected from the bottom of Lake Atitlán with the support of more

00:09than 50 divers.

00:13More than 50 internationally renowned divers

00:18changed their mission of rescuing lives to face a new challenge, collecting solid

00:23waste at the bottom of Lake Atitlán in the Department of Solola.

00:27Today we are in this activity because we know that we also have to contribute to

00:31nature so, I repeat, these are people who come today to donate their time.

00:38It's an initiative of the Taz Ananya Collective from San Pedro La Laguna,

00:42Solola, which for more than a decade has fought against contamination, aimed at

00:46healing and rescuing Lake Atitlán.

00:50There is environmental racism here because we, the

00:55indigenous women, the indigenous communities, end up picking up the waste.

00:59We end up depositing this garbage that the big industries have generated.

01:04The leaders' words are

01:09translated into numbers. The divers collected more than 1,500 pounds of waste

01:14washed in by the rains from communities that do not have waste treatment plants.

01:17We found a lot of non-recyclable material,

01:24iron, ferrous and many tires, so that occupies a large amount of volume in

01:28hard plastic, pipes, elbows.

01:35The sorting of this waste reflects the negative externalities of

01:40industries that do not calculate the harmful impacts of their products and

01:43packaging, suggests one of the villagers.

01:48Everyone calculates their profits, calculates their labor, calculates their raw materials.

01:53Everything is calculated, but what they don't calculate is their solid waste.

01:58On February 11th, 2025,

02:04governmental agreement 164-2021 comes into effect, which requires the

02:10classification of solid waste at the national level, a practice that San Pedro

02:14Laguna implemented since 2016.

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