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Trash Report from Municipal attorney and Ajijic Delegado


HarryB

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There are obviously some who are not happy with the system and municipal government here in Lakeside.  All I know is that if you're not happy, speak to the powers that be to effect change, not moan and groan constantly on a gringo webboard.  That doesn't solve anything!  And if you have spoken to the right people, please let the rest of us know how your meeting went and what progress was made.

 (this post will probably be deleted, and I may be banned for speaking up, but I have a copy of it to use on TOB if necessary)

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Suegarn, nothing wrong with your post.  You're entitled to your opinion as long as you don't attack other members of this board personally.  You would have to do that over at TOB as it is not permitted here. 

We delete personal attacks and hand out time outs or suspensions for the worst cases who just can't accept the concept of disagreeing without being disagreeable and personally nasty.

Thanks for expressing your opinion constructively. 

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When we came here there was no garden pick up ..I am not surprise that it puts a strain on the system..They could charge people with garden debris and have some private company pick up the debris.. SOme gardeners  make a pile in front of the houses without tying anything and that is not picked.. up adding to the mess. That is what the guys who pick up the garbage told me..

 

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Me, I am still contemplating the concept of "decomposing truck collectors"--that might explain the problem with not enough trash collection in Ajijic, but what about those poor decomposing truck collectors???? Did they get thrown out with the trash????

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17 minutes ago, JayBearII said:

Me, I am still contemplating the concept of "decomposing truck collectors"--that might explain the problem with not enough trash collection in Ajijic, but what about those poor decomposing truck collectors???? Did they get thrown out with the trash????

No, they've been cremated so as to occupy less space on the truck. ;)

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the garbage trucks are "decomposing" not the guys--in other words " breaking dow"n Ja  ja ..I had to read the Spanish version to get that one..

 

Looing at the trucks the problem is not new and not going to get better.. I bet no government wanted to spend any money with maintenance and we seem to see the last breath of that equipment but I bet they will make them last without spending money until the next administration that will be stuck with that problem..

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I have to keep on telling my gardener to use the compost pile. And he wouldn't if I didn't push him. I get the idea he would just rather have me buy fertilizer and throw all of the very compostable waste away.  Could it be that many of the locals lakeside simply don't want to take the time to compost, or don't know how nutritious composed soil can be? Or is it just my gardener.

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We have the three bag system in Seattle. It took about a year educate the people, but these days it works great. By far the largest bin in my 132 unit condo, is the recyclables, followed by organic to include shredded paper followed my the smallest bag, true garbage.

Most of my neighbors who live here full time thought it would never catch on and work, boy were they happily surprised.

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23 hours ago, johanson said:

I have to keep on telling my gardener to use the compost pile. And he wouldn't if I didn't push him. I get the idea he would just rather have me buy fertilizer and throw all of the very compostable waste away.  Could it be that many of the locals lakeside simply don't want to take the time to compost, or don't know how nutritious composed soil can be? Or is it just my gardener.

Johanson, did you read my post earlier in this thread re composting? I have never met a Mexican gardener who understood the concept of a compost pile. Nor leaving smaller organic material around the plants as mulch. They like to rake everything bare and burn it, or put out with the garbage. They don't pull weeds, either, just wait til they get big enough to machete.

Seems like it would be a great business for someone with a big lot to start a composting facillty for the yard waste. After it breaks down, they can screen it, bag it, and make $ selling it. Plus they could charge for pick-up.

It's ridiculous for yard waste to be going in a garbage truck.

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I just reread your posts. One comment. We do not burn any of the recycled materials, in fact one of the major items they recycle is paper, that is  cardboard boxes (usually from Amazon, really), newspapers, paper sacks etc. 

I have no idea how they recycle these items. But they do not burn them.

 

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15 hours ago, johanson said:

I just reread your posts. One comment. We do not burn any of the recycled materials, in fact one of the major items they recycle is paper, that is  cardboard boxes (usually from Amazon, really), newspapers, paper sacks etc. 

I have no idea how they recycle these items. But they do not burn them.

 

I think you misunderstood- I do recycle my cardboard. The other bits of paper I just use as fire starter in my clay barbecue, or add to the compost pile if un-inked or unbleached.

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Sorry I misunderstood you . In Seattle, we use paper shredders to delete documents, bank statements etc  And if it is shredded with ink on it or not it goes into the compost collection bucket. all other papers are recycled by the city,

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On ‎6‎/‎19‎/‎2017 at 5:38 PM, JayBearII said:

Me, I am still contemplating the concept of "decomposing truck collectors"--that might explain the problem with not enough trash collection in Ajijic, but what about those poor decomposing truck collectors???? Did they get thrown out with the trash????

Yes, but the money in their pockets was recycled!

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On ‎6‎/‎19‎/‎2017 at 7:19 PM, johanson said:

I have to keep on telling my gardener to use the compost pile. And he wouldn't if I didn't push him. I get the idea he would just rather have me buy fertilizer and throw all of the very compostable waste away.  Could it be that many of the locals lakeside simply don't want to take the time to compost, or don't know how nutritious composed soil can be? Or is it just my gardener.

Not just your gardener, it`s ALL gardeners here.  Very few, those that have been NOB, have any concept of compost (or mulch).  To the other 95%, compost is just a dirty, messy thing.  It is totally non-traditional.  They can`t imagine why you would pay to "put or keep trash on your property".  There is an effort by a local gardening teacher to teach the jardineros these kinds of "NOB" practices.  One jardinero told me keeping old leaves around kills plants!

So, johansen, though you didn`t know it, you are in a group of expats, like me, that are adding to the knowledge of the Mexican gardener.  It`ll be slow but eventually composting, mulching and organic gardening will be part of the common knowledge of local gardeners.

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On ‎6‎/‎20‎/‎2017 at 7:26 PM, mudgirl said:

Seems like it would be a great business for someone with a big lot to start a composting facillty for the yard waste. After it breaks down, they can screen it, bag it, and make $ selling it. Plus they could charge for pick-up.

It's ridiculous for yard waste to be going in a garbage truck.

Yes, exactly, another recycling resource.  And being able to dump the greenwaste lakeside would save HUGE wear and tear on the trucks and allow them to pick up much more trash before they have to unload (helping hugely with the trash situation lakeside).  It would also keep more trucks on the job and out of the repair bays.

Because: the basuleros, after they pick up as large a load of trash as the trucks can carry, drive to Guadalajara to cash in their recyclables then all the way back to Chapala  (100 kilometers round trip on a highway full of potholes) to dump what`s left in the landfill.  These trips are made, every day, with several tons of greenwaste in their trucks. 

So, a local composting operation would:

1.  Be a money-making operation for someone (some of the money going back to fix trash trucks(?)

2.  Keep more trash trucks on the street (and not in the repair yard).  Doubling the trash truck hours?

3.  Keep valuable minerals in the green waste from leaving lakeside and staying in local gardens.nwas

I doubt it would be much of a problem getting the green waste to the composting operation.

The production of compost would be quite rapid in this environment especially with windrowing and other commercial composting methods and tools.

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On 6/22/2017 at 0:51 PM, bdmowers said:

Yes, exactly, another recycling resource.  And being able to dump the greenwaste lakeside would save HUGE wear and tear on the trucks and allow them to pick up much more trash before they have to unload (helping hugely with the trash situation lakeside).  It would also keep more trucks on the job and out of the repair bays.

Because: the basuleros, after they pick up as large a load of trash as the trucks can carry, drive to Guadalajara to cash in their recyclables then all the way back to Chapala  (100 kilometers round trip on a highway full of potholes) to dump what`s left in the landfill.  These trips are made, every day, with several tons of greenwaste in their trucks. 

So, a local composting operation would:

1.  Be a money-making operation for someone (some of the money going back to fix trash trucks(?)

2.  Keep more trash trucks on the street (and not in the repair yard).  Doubling the trash truck hours?

3.  Keep valuable minerals in the green waste from leaving lakeside and staying in local gardens.nwas

I doubt it would be much of a problem getting the green waste to the composting operation.

The production of compost would be quite rapid in this environment especially with windrowing and other commercial composting methods and tools.

I was under the impression that there was already a municipal composting site and that's why the yard waste is separated from the rest, otherwise it would just be "basura".  But, I could be wrong.  

My maid seems to grasp elementary composting.  I asked her to put leaves from the patio around the plants and she told me which leaves were the best.  A few years ago there was some movement towards separating and recycling all wastes, which was evidently never publicized in Spanish.  I explained this to my maid and she had never heard of it, never had any news about that, or color coding or whatever.  I've had to explain to her several times about how/why we separate the garbage, and she finally sort of got it when I said the reason was to help the trash guys who have to handle all the garbage with their ungloved hands.  And the reason we recycle was to help save Mother Earth and the water supply from pollution.  She sort of got that.  

I don't have a regular gardener but a couple guys from my landlady's family come over every 3 months to clean the tinaco and do various other weeding and trimming in my jardincito which I can usually manage.  I noticed that they both have left the water running full blast, while leaving the area and almost flooding the small garden and wasting huge amount of water.

I gently chided them for that, having lived in CA for most of my adult life and living through severe droughts - 40 years ago, before there was a pipeline between the Russian River to the north, and Marin County north of SF.  Everyone pitched in and engaged in extreme water conservation across the board, it was a matter of survival!  When you go through that, you never go back to wasting water.

In the last severe 5-year drought in CA, the situation was becoming dire, but this time the newly very wealthy continued to truck in very expensive water just to keep their estates green, thumbing their snooty noses at the rest of the population.  Water is sometimes a limited resource, we cannot waste it!  Then the rains came like monsoons to make up for 5 years of drought, with flooding in many areas, and extremely heavy snow in the Sierras,  They still have skiing up there at this time.

Anyway, I still conserve water, using a bucket under my shower as the water warms up, and then I use that water for potted plants, and water the big bushes with a slow trickle so as not to have runoff.   And...we are getting a very slow start to the rainy season...quien sabe?  In this area we are always at risk for water shortages, everyone should be conserving water!

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5 hours ago, ezpz said:

I was under the impression that there was already a municipal composting site and that's why the yard waste is separated from the rest, otherwise it would just be "basura".  But, I could be wrong.

I am not  sure if there is a municipal site. I think I heard that once. But, even if there is, the basulero trucks don`t go there before they take their trek to Guad to sell their recyclables.  The point of my post was that because of that, the trucks are bumping along on a 100 kilometer trip every day with an extra ton (more?) of green waste which puts extra wear and tear on the trucks. 

My maid seems to grasp elementary composting.  I asked her to put leaves from the patio around the plants and she told me which leaves were the best.  A few years ago there was some movement towards separating and recycling all wastes, which was evidently never publicized in Spanish.  I explained this to my maid and she had never heard of it, never had any news about that, or color coding or whatever.  I've had to explain to her several times about how/why we separate the garbage, and she finally sort of got it when I said the reason was to help the trash guys who have to handle all the garbage with their ungloved hands.  

The greater point of why it is best to separate out recycling from the trash is that the basuleros cannot get to all the recyclables when they are mixed in with the other trash.  If the trash were separated 1)  the basuleros would have more recyclables to cash in 2) much less of the recyclables would be simply dumped into the municipal trash pile.

I don't have a regular gardener but a couple guys from my landlady's family come over every 3 months to clean the tinaco and do various other weeding and trimming in my jardincito which I can usually manage.  I noticed that they both have left the water running full blast, while leaving the area and almost flooding the small garden and wasting huge amount of water.

What is not generally known yet is that the wells, and this the aquifers here, are depleting quickly.  This is happening all over Mexico.  There is no other resource for our water.  We will have a crisis soon.  We will need to conserve water at some point.   I don`t know when Simapa will inform the public of this. I hope sooner rather than when the water starts running out. 

 

 

Quote

Anyway, I still conserve water, using a bucket under my shower as the water warms up, and then I use that water for potted plants, and water the big bushes with a slow trickle so as not to have runoff.   And...we are getting a very slow start to the rainy season...quien sabe?  In this area we are always at risk for water shortages, everyone should be conserving water!

Bravo, ezpz, and there are many other ways to conserve water that is becoming more and more precious:

1) For landscaping (by far the largest user of water lakeside), use of mulch.
2) Using plants in the landscape that do not use a lot of water, like succulents.
3) Spare or no use of grass.

4) Repiping the house for directing of gray water to the outside landscape. (Most importantly redirecting shower water.)
5) Use of compost toilets.
6)  Covering pools to reduce evaporation.
7)  Rain catchment.
8)  Etc., etc.

 

 

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Ya'll should have been at Open Circle this morning...the speaker was Lic. Luis Enrique Ramos, regarding the water situation around here, how it works with the government(?!), and a bit about what can and is being done about the situation.  It was very enlightening and he is an excellent speaker.

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14 minutes ago, Willie said:

Ya'll should have been at Open Circle this morning...the speaker was Lic. Luis Enrique Ramos, regarding the water situation around here, how it works with the government(?!), and a bit about what can and is being done about the situation.  It was very enlightening and he is an excellent speaker.

Some highlights?

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18 hours ago, bdmowers said:

I don't have a regular gardener but a couple guys from my landlady's family come over every 3 months to clean the tinaco and do various other weeding and trimming in my jardincito which I can usually manage.  I noticed that they both have left the water running full blast, while leaving the area and almost flooding the small garden and wasting huge amount of water.

You quoted this, bd, and replied to it, but for some reason it quoted as your post.

Anyway, I have seen many, many times gardeners will open the faucet that comes from the city water supply, as opposed to one's tinako, there is no water flowing at that time, and they neglect to close it again. When the water comes on, you end up with a flood. Some guys who keep horses near my place leave the tap open to fill the horse trough. When the water comes on, usually in the middle of the night, the trough fills in about 15 minutes, then the water just overflows for the next 6 hours, running down and ruining the road, wasting thousands of liters of water. I have reported it many times over the years, the city has talked to them, then cut their water line, but the horse guys just reconnect it.

 

 

 

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1 hour ago, mudgirl said:

You quoted this, bd, and replied to it, but for some reason it quoted as your post.

Anyway, I have seen many, many times gardeners will open the faucet that comes from the city water supply, as opposed to one's tinako, there is no water flowing at that time, and they neglect to close it again. When the water comes on, you end up with a flood. Some guys who keep horses near my place leave the tap open to fill the horse trough. When the water comes on, usually in the middle of the night, the trough fills in about 15 minutes, then the water just overflows for the next 6 hours, running down and ruining the road, wasting thousands of liters of water. I have reported it many times over the years, the city has talked to them, then cut their water line, but the horse guys just reconnect it.

It was ezpz`s post.

There is huge ignorance of the problem with our aquifer.  The level is way down and decreasing fast.  Some solution will have to be implemented soon. One quick way to ration the water is to implement water metering.  But hugely expensive. People like you mention above and those with huge water guzzling gardens (mostly originally from NOB) are the cause of the problem with the aquifer.  Number of days when water flows from the wells will eventually decrease. 

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