Be creative when it comes to trash solutions

I’m sure I share everyone’s frustration in response to yet another article about roadside trash in New Mexico (“Cleaning up motorists’ mess,” March 7). But I suggest it doesn’t have to be an intractable problem.

I lived and worked for five years in Rwanda, a country our former president lumped together with all sub-Saharan countries with an epithet, as we all remember. He could not have been further from the truth, as Rwanda is truly spotless, something the new visitor notices immediately upon leaving Kigali airport. This is a function of community pride (yes, a function of the post-genocide effort to create national harmony), incessant sweeping of streets and a specific national program called umuganda (originally meaning “woods to construct a traditional house,” not unlike an Amish barn-raising, and now meaning “coming together in common purpose”).

Every third Saturday morning, the entire country comes to a standstill for three hours as everyone participates in community cleaning and development projects. The 270 girls at the boarding school I started would go to the local village of Gashora to partner with the villagers to improve roads, clear brush from irrigation ditches, clean the house of a widow of the genocide, etc. The projects were set by the “chief ” of the umudugudu (neighborhood), specific to that community’s needs.

Acknowledging that plastic is the biggest trash problem worldwide, Rwanda has a national policy banning plastic bags. In fact, if you buy duty-free items in Amsterdam on your way to Rwanda, you must take your goods out and leave the bag on the plane. President Paul Kagame (a not uncontroversial leader) participates regularly as a role model to the citizens. From all this, Rwanda is ranked as the cleanest country in Africa, Kigali is the cleanest capital city, and the concept of umuganda is now mimicked in South Africa and South Sudan.

Perhaps all this seems “quaint” and unworkable in Santa Fe, but I have more faith in our city of holy faith, believing that there is strong neighborhood pride here, too. Perhaps Mayor Alan Webber, who recently announced his reelection campaign, could take a lead role coalescing neighborhood groups in this “act locally” endeavor, making Santa Fe an exemplar for the state and saving at least some of the $3.2 million spent annually on trash pickup to apply to our underfunded schools.

And thanks Brian McMahon from Madrid, who was also cited in the paper (“Village of Madrid, N.M., adopts town in Uganda,” March 7), for his support of Kyamulibwa, Uganda. Such small-scale efforts can have larger ripple effects, as you’ve now seen. Kudos to Brian.