A quiet afternoon in Anderson Road there there was that often heard cry of a street seller passing my gate. I would normally resist the knocks and bell rings; 'just another attempt to make a fast buck', I thought. But something made me go answer the bell and there was Ruwan, a 35 year old father of 4 kids, on his bike looking for anything he could re-cycle. 'Do you take old newspapers?' I asked.
His eyes lite up 'Oh yes Mr, how many you have?'. Not only would he take old papers he offered to pay for them too. I went into my office and emerged with a ton or two of old newspapers that had started to become a major health and safty hazard. Now imagine cycling this bike home? In this picture he is only carrying half the bundle.
Like in so many other poor societies, here in Sri Lanka many make their meagre living from other people's waste but sadly not in plastics. Only yesterday I felt I was bitten by a showl of plastic bags when swimming on the mount Lavinia Beach. Imagine my delight, but complete incomprehension, when I saw announced in the news that
production of plastic bags and wrappings, under 20 microns, will be illegal from 1st January 2007. Well so is
extra-judicial execution but that runs rife.
Some hope for 2007.
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