I am the Lorax. I speak for the trees.
Most of us take trees for granted. There are oak trees over 100 years old near my house and my hometown is one of the greenest, literally not eco-friendly, cities in the United States. They mean clean air and shade to protect us from the damaging sun as well as protection from landslides. They’re something to climb and play on as kids. Sometimes the trees wreak havoc, especially during tornadoes, but otherwise, we’re glad to have them.
I’ve been to places where the logging industry has had their way with the land, as close as my grandmother’s house in North Georgia to as far away as Thailand. Where trees used to be, there’s little more than dirt and twigs. It has a major environmental impact on the creatures that call these areas home. There’s also the problem of waste, which ends up in landfills when not recyclable.
Reforestation and Planting Trees
My time with Fathom in the Dominican Republic addressed both of these problems separately. On my first day of impact activities, I went to a community outside Puerto Plata to work on a reforestation project. Each day there is different, and the group works in many different locations, but on this day we worked with IDDI to dig up seedlings from the hillside and transplant them into the greenhouse.
I was ready to get my hands dirty, literally and figuratively, and was handed a pair of mismatched gloves. We were taken up the hill where we were shown how to find the right seedlings, placed in no particular order, and dig them up carefully to protect the seed. There weren’t enough shovels, so I dug with my hands until my fingers were throbbing. A man came up to me and showed me how to do it with a stick.
Erosion is a big problem here, especially thanks to the sudden rainstorms we experienced firsthand that day, so these little seedlings would help prevent it. Over the course of a few hours, we planted over 400 of what would become palm, mangrove, and sea grape trees. Locals might one day sit under these trees with a cold drink or they might become paper that schoolchildren learn to write on.
Recycling and Making Paper
After my day of planting trees and seeing the massive landfill on the ride into town, I got to see firsthand the impact of waste. An otherwise beautiful plot of land was first the site of littering but soon people heard about it and continued dumping here until pieces of white were all you noticed among the green setting. It’s something that could just as easily happen where we all live without a way to recycle.
IDDI recognized the issue in their communities and started a two-step process to combat it. First, they partnered with local businesses to collect their documents and papers for shredding. This helps both the businesses that don’t have to pay for shredding services for their sensitive legal documents as well as for the people who can recycle the paper rather than having it end up in a landfill like the one I saw.
From there, the ladies of Repapel, a women’s cooperative, shred the paper and sort it into blank and inked. It’s soaked in a washing machine and processed in a blender to become pulp. From there, they use strainers to pull the liquids out and form the paper.
It’s hung to dry, quickly in the Dominican sun, and pressed to be sold as paper. This allows the women to earn a modest income to support their children, some with special needs, while reusing items that would otherwise be thrown away.
But this is just one aspect of what Repapel does. Other projects they work on include candlemaking and jewelry making, using seeds and coffee beans. I wasn’t sure we were actually helping until they told us that we created 152 pieces of paper in a single afternoon! That’s many fewer pieces of paper in landfills. It made me think that perhaps just one person, or group of people, can make a difference.
I traveled to the Dominican Republic with Fathom, which included my impact activities, but all opinions and experiences are my own.
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