In the last few months, no wet waste leaves the house as it all gets composted. The next problem: what do I do with the dry waste? If I dispose it daily, it just finds its way to the local dump where it gets mixed with all the wet waste and becomes non-recyclable.
THE PROBLEM:
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| Dry+wet waste of neighbors: NON-RECYCLABLE |
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That garbage finds its way to the local dump (a stinky eyesore)
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| Since it is non-recyclable, it gets dumped like this outside the city, often contaminating lakes and groundwater. This is a snap of Belandur lake, once a pristine water body |
THE SOLUTION:
1. For the last six weeks, I put all dry waste from the house into a large plastic sack.
2. That includes everything: milk covers, packaging paper, pizza boxes, broken glass, cardboard, all sorts of plastic, useless bills, spam postal mail, tetra packs
3. In the case of plastic milk covers and other containers of wet materials, I wash and dry them before I put them into the sack. Else it becomes stinky and non-recyclable.
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| Little cheese dip boxes set out to dry before they go into the garbage bag |
4. The biggest problem is Sugami, the maid- who by now thinks I am an extra-terrestrial when she sees me washing milk packets and small cheese boxes! The moment I look away, she is apt to throw the garbage out.
"Ye kya hai????" she often asks with part despair and part derision, pointing to the plastic cover.
5. Today, I took the now full garbage bag and phut-phuted my way to Jayanagar (about 4 km from here).
Saahas (http://www.saahas.org/), is an NGO based in Bangalore. Their motto is "
Nothing is waste", and they are a waste management firm. They take all wet and dry waste from households and offices and get each item to the right recycling source:
- Plastics go to firms that roll all the plastic and make secondary plastic products like municipal garbage bins
- Paper gets recycled into notebooks etc
- Tetra packs are ground into road paving material etc
- Everything gets recycled
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| The Saahas office in Jayanagar |
6. So at the end of the morning, I had got rid of the dry waste in a way that minimizes the harm to the local eco-system- all it took was a small change in the daily lifestyle.
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| The state of my garbage bin for the last 6 weeks: EMPTY! |
NEXT STEPS: Convince my apartment mates to make the same lifestyle changes!
4 comments:
nice anna! :-)
I applaud your efforts Anna. Recycling is stuff we take for granted in US. Our trash collectors collect trash as landfill, recycle and green waste. We just need to separate it. I must say I do 70% of what I can.
Another surprising thing is that WM pushes zero landfill initiatives a lot at work. We don't have individual trash cans in our office. We have 4 cans in the common areas. Landfill, compost, paper and cans&bottles. Every day WM employees sort incorrect items and send a report to each floor how they performed. At first, it was irritating having to walkover to the trash bins every time, but now I got used to it. Another + is the extra exercise.
I really admire your patience in trying to make a difference.
Thanks everyone :-).
Krupa: You are right- in India, we have managed to pick up the bad habits of the West (use and throw culture), but not the good habits.
It is nice to hear that big companies like WM do this. In Infy also there are some attempts of this sort- but beyond a point, people get petulant. The SEP (Somebody Elses Problem) syndrome is still very strong here.
and thanks Krupa for the encouraging words:-)
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