The Plastic Fork in the Road: a Case for Sustainable Progress in Africa
Not many Americans get the opportunity to travel to Africa, let alone live and work there for almost two months¹. I was really excited but also apprehensive when I found out I would be going as both torch and trail² for my unit’s mission to Ethiopia. Going there was an eye-opening trip of a lifetime. I tend to think of myself as well traveled, but Ethiopia surprised me in a lot of ways.
The trip was, first and foremost, a check on my privilege. Having been to South America a few times, I thought I knew what a third world country looked like. Ethiopia was a good reminder that I, as a fairly average American, am one of the wealthiest people in the world, mostly due to the abject poverty most of the world lives in, and I have an incredibly high quality of life. I was shocked by some of the living conditions that I saw. I knew people lived that way, but I had never seen it for myself.
On a lighter note, Ethiopia was also a humbling lesson in what good coffee tastes like — even the hotel coffee put Starbucks to shame, and a cup of coffee was 25 Birr or approximately 30 cents. It was so simple, and yet so good.
Most importantly, Ethiopia challenged how I view developing countries. From disposable water bottles to the Chinese industry moving in, I ultimately began to realize that Ethiopia, like many developing countries, is changing rapidly. Progress comes at a price, and Ethiopia and many other countries are faced with difficult choices every day regarding how they want to develop. There are a few ways countries can approach modernization and industrialization: Ethiopia can invest in sustainable development that may have a higher monetary cost but a much lower environmental cost, or it can choose rapid industrialization at the expense of sustainability.
Ethiopia is Low Waste by Necessity, Not by Choice
Ethiopia has traditionally been a low waste country, but that could quickly change with the advent of a westernized system. Most of the Ethiopians I encountered were impressively thrifty. They do not have a throwaway culture, generally because they cannot afford to have one. They have not acquired the bad habits we have in America of prioritizing convenience over conservation, throwing away an average of 4.4 lbs of waste every day. Despite this, all the water that I drank in Ethiopia during my 7-week stay was bottled. This is of course sadly normal for Americans traveling abroad. What was abnormal to me was that any Ethiopian who could afford it was drinking bottled water as well — in stark contrast to the usual use and reuse and up-cycling of anything and everything with any value that I generally saw. The bottled water makes sense — access to clean water is very poor, and people make money from bottling any clean source of water. Unfortunately, clean water in Ethiopia is a privilege, not a right. Perhaps even more unfortunately, this use of plastic water bottles creates a staggering amount of trash in a country that does not have the infrastructure to dispose of it.
Water bottles pile up across the scrub land or burn in the street. Ethiopia’s bottle use is paradoxical to the way Ethiopians generally live. The average Ethiopian would put the most die hard “zero waste” hippy in America to shame with how well they reuse materials. Most of the vehicles in Ethiopia are more than 20 years old and running on a combination of ingenuity, repairs, and sheer willpower. Ethiopians repurpose old vegetable oil containers as fuel cans, with water bottle funnels. There are houses made with walls of water bottles lashed together. Everyone only had a few sets of clothes that they take care of meticulously. The workers on the compound that we lived in could fit all their belongings into the trash bag that the average American fills up with trash in a week. Yet, given the opportunity, the people were more than happy to drink bottled water and toss the bottle. The difference between the average Ethiopian and the zero waster American is access to these disposable items.
The Ethiopians were not particularly concerned about their trash. Given access to the American throwaway system they would have the same issues we do — hence the water bottles. America has inadvertently set a standard of consumption and disposal that is unsustainable on a global level. If Ethiopia follows the same path we took to development, it too will create this system. But for now, Ethiopia is a clean slate. It does not have to fight the system like Americans need to. Ethiopia is in a prime position to set up a cycle of sustainable reuse as they modernize. However, they could easily progress to our level of consumption by mimicking our flawed system as they industrialize.
Foreign Investment Creates Growth, But What’s the Cost?
Another way Ethiopia is modernizing is foreign investment. I had heard of China’s Belt and Road Initiative in Africa, but I had a unique opportunity to see it in action when I was there. On my daily drive in Ethiopia we left crowded city streets for dirt roads. After a few miles the rutted dirt would suddenly turn into a paved three lane highway. It was a bizarre shift, made even more strange by the standard Ethiopian vehicles, caravans of donkeys, and horse drawn carts still present on the street.
The pristine new road was only there to support a massive Chinese industrial park, newly opened. After the factory the road once again reverted to dirt. Ethiopia is adding industry like this — in spurts and jumps and small stretches of fresh Chinese road. Ethiopia is open and receptive to industry and modernization, and China has taken advantage of this. It’s a great opportunity for Ethiopia to grow its economy — and it has, in the past few years alone Ethiopia has seen double digit growth. Ethiopia is prime real estate for Chinese industry, and there are currently more than 400 Chinese projects in Ethiopia, capitalizing on its cheap labor and natural resources.
Ethiopia is a key part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative in Africa. Unfortunately, this growth is often a way for China to export its pollution to Africa. China is a member of the Paris Climate Accord, but those domestic restrictions do not apply to its activity in Africa. As a result, China has opened 34 foreign coal plants, including 11 in Africa.
It doesn’t have to be this way. There are ways to grow Ethiopia’s economy in a sustainable way that protects the planet, and Ethiopia is an unwritten page, open for this type of investment. For example, Ethiopia is a great candidate for geothermal energy due to its geology³ and investment in geothermal could create 10,000 MV of electricity, thereby fueling human development. Growth is good for a country that lags even behind the rest of Africa in many ways; however, ideally Ethiopia would develop in a sustainable way rather than becoming a new dumping ground for China’s pollution. Ethiopia should remain open and receptive to investment, but it is important to ensure that Africa does not become the scene of another environmental tragedy in conjunction with economic growth.
Ethiopians Recognize the Importance of Environmental Protection, But It’s often Overshadowed and Misguided
Despite economic challenges Ethiopia is facing, Ethiopians are aware that they need to protect the environment and are ready and willing to do so. While I was in country there was a national tree planting day as a government sponsored eco-friendly initiative. Ethiopians planted 353 million trees in 12 hours, breaking the world record held by India. The initiative is part of a government program to reforest areas that have been unsustainably harvested. This project shows that Ethiopia realizes their natural resources are in danger and wants to protect their landscape. Ethiopia, along with the entire horn of Africa, has battled drought and rising temperatures in recent years. National Tree Planting Day is a great example of how open Ethiopia is to sustainability. If this initiative could be directed toward creating sustainable industry in Ethiopia, it would be incredibly powerful.
Sustainable Development is Possible, and Necessary
Ethiopia, like many third world countries, is at a tipping point. The people have begun to see how others in the world live, and are willing to work to get that quality of life. They are hungry to catch up to the industrialized world, and they have the people and natural resources to do it. Ethiopia is ripe for investment from massive investors. It is also aware of climate issues, but not completely sure how to deal with them. This brings us to a fork in the road — develop in a way that nurtures the Ethiopian people and the planet, or allow natural resources and the people to be exploited as a dirty, sooty, messy industrial revolution rolls through. We could not afford that kind of industrial revolution when Europe and the United States industrialized, and now we know better. Right now, the richest 10% of the global population create 50% of carbon emissions, and a third of those people live in the United States. Those of us privileged to live in these wealthy countries have a responsibility to curb our emissions. However, we also have a responsibility to support developing countries as they move toward greater quality of life. Americans need to figure out how to live with less, but they also need to help Ethiopia progress in quality of life without becoming unsustainable as we have.
[1] Only 884 Americans traveled to Africa in 2012, mostly to South Africa and Morocco. travel.trade.gov/outreachpages/download_data_table/2012_US_Travel_Abroad.pdf
[2] This means I was a member of the first group there and I was the last to leave. This gave me the unique opportunity to see Ethiopia less restricted by the confines of a larger Army unit.
[3] “Energy: Geothermal.” Drawdown: the Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming, by Paul Hawken, Penguin Random House LLC, 2017, pp. 6–7.
