It might not look like much .. but this is a rubbish collection - with separate recyclables and normal rubbish - which has been introduced in San Pedro recently. This is a HUGE step forward. Previously there was no rubbish collection at all - so all rubbish ended up, sooner or later, in the Lake.
This is the work of the new mayor in the town. Recognising the contamination problem in the water, and the effect that that has on the tourist industry, the new Mayor has instigated this new rubbish and recycling collection service.
Alongside that, a new bylaw bans the use of plastic bags, straws and polystyrene /disposable plates and cups in San Pedro. Interesting this has brought a lot of interest. For many market traders and street sellers in San Pedro, who supply the traveller community with cheap food, this is a big change. For the local community too, who, like most of Guatemala, use disposable plates etc as a norm. Many would have said that a ban like this, would have been very difficult to pass (and enforce) but the Mayor introduced it using the rhetoric of 'la herencia de los abuelos' - our grandparents legacy -- a sense of recapturing the respect and value that our grandparents generation had for the nature that surrounds it. This particularly appealed to the indigenous population in San Pedro. So the law was passed, and has now been introduced. Market traders has returned to using banana leaves as packaging (or locals take their own containers to market), the restaurants having stopped offering plastic straws with the drinks and I saw a new shop in town, selling biodegradable food containers for take aways. It would be fantastic if other towns and cities could take inspiration from San Pedro, and make a change for the benefit of our planet - and everything and everyone that lives on it!
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