Cuba, Toward a Culture of Recycling
- Submitted by: admin
- Caribbean
- culture an traditions
- Destinations
- history
- national
- Society
- Business and Economy
- Politics and Government
- 08 / 12 / 2008
Encouraged by that idea, on November 7, 1961 the Commander Ernesto Che Guevara, Minister of Industries of the Cuban Revolutionary Government, founded the original nucleus of the Union of Companies of Recovery of Raw Matters (UERMP), which is responsible for the rescue of about 20 useful lines, among them steel scrap, copper, aluminum, fused iron, bronze, stainless steel and diverse metals of great economic value.
The gathering of bottles and pommels of glass, paper waste and cardboard, plastic and textile waste, and other materials that the State and the citizenship not always recover, are particularly very important.
Although unfailingly the population of the Island responds well to the campaigns dedicated to recover raw matters, by means of the special help of the CDRs, and with the infant movement Recuperadores del Futuro, as well as the inclusion of this topic in the school programs, in Cuba people still need to acquire a better conscience about the importance of this task.
There are extremely developing data as for the necessity of creating a culture of the recycling. For example, United States uses about 50, 000 trees to obtain the paper to print all the newspapers that circulate in that country every Sunday, while in Mexico about 10 million newspapers are thrown in the garbage every afternoon.
An illustrative example is that with 1.2 tons of paper or used cardboard can be use to manufacture 25, 000 school notebooks, 2, 480 books of 400 pages each one, 13, 800 trays for eggs or 400 tiles, enough to roof three housings.
Every year in Las Tunas, 690 kilometers to the east of Havana the Company of Stainless Steels (ACINOX), produces more than 100, 000 tons of metal of excellent quality with recovered scrap. At the same time that they are used to build housings, hospitals, schools and other social works in the whole country.
The use of scrap considerably reduces the cost per ton, diminishes the consumption of water and electricity, and minimizes the noxious substances to the atmosphere.
So this praiseworthy task, besides saving imports, expenses of natural resources and other efforts to the country - at the time that offers guarantee for the environmental health and a secure use of source- also constitutes a road by means of which many families can improve their domestic economy.
However, a lot of raw matter is not recovered yet, due to different reasons, such as negligence of the institutions or the population's apathy, or because there is lack of culture in the recycling by the side of the citizens.
(Tiempo21.cu)
Comments