How GREEN can you go?
The November Reader's Digest cover has caught my attention with the title of BEING GREEN, and articles likes: Solving Asia's Garbage Problem, and What YOU can do!
The feature stories is included: It's time to clean up by William Ecenbarger. This is some of the highlights:
| An out-of-control garbage crisis threatens the physical and economic health of much of Asia |
As we become wealthier and consume more, we are producing unprecedented quantities of rubbish. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) estimates that our largest cities produce on average 760,000 tons of solid waste per day. It predicts that there will be a two-fold increase – to 1.8 million tons – by 2025.
This is of course make me scare. The garbage issue in Asia is getting so serious. How many of us think that we can really help by doing some simple step into our daily life?
People take our life style by granted. We think it is a modern time so what we do is just normal or acceptable for our time because what we need now is something that is convenient , and easy to use to suit our busy and demanding life. So in the marketing world the wording like: disposable, use and toss, no fuss is highly sell able now a days.
I remember clearly that , my mom re-use all the margarine's containers and pack my and my sibling snacks in it. I didn't have any Barbie, or Dora lunch box that time. Of course the main reason my mom did this because she wanted to save money.
My mom also had a rattan/wooden basket that she brought everyday to the market , and put all the vegetables, fish, and meat in it. She doesn't want to deal with the dirty plastic bags . And I think this is a great way to reduce the waste of plastic bags.
My late grandma used to kept the water that she used to wash rice grains in a bucket and used it to watered her plants. She said that the water from washing the rice grains has vitamins in it and it is beneficial for the plants. I am glad she saw it that way. At least she is re-using a half bucket of water a day.
But since our quality if life in term of financial is getting better that our parent's time, we also afford many thing and consume much more than our parent's generation.
People take our life style by granted. We think it is a modern time so what we do is just normal or acceptable for our time because what we need now is something that is convenient , and easy to use to suit our busy and demanding life. So in the marketing world the wording like: disposable, use and toss, no fuss is highly sell able now a days.
I remember clearly that , my mom re-use all the margarine's containers and pack my and my sibling snacks in it. I didn't have any Barbie, or Dora lunch box that time. Of course the main reason my mom did this because she wanted to save money.
My mom also had a rattan/wooden basket that she brought everyday to the market , and put all the vegetables, fish, and meat in it. She doesn't want to deal with the dirty plastic bags . And I think this is a great way to reduce the waste of plastic bags.
My late grandma used to kept the water that she used to wash rice grains in a bucket and used it to watered her plants. She said that the water from washing the rice grains has vitamins in it and it is beneficial for the plants. I am glad she saw it that way. At least she is re-using a half bucket of water a day.
But since our quality if life in term of financial is getting better that our parent's time, we also afford many thing and consume much more than our parent's generation.
Much of the added burden is packaging from consumer products and the products themselves – all of which need years, even centuries, to decompose. Lindfield cites estimates that four of every five products we buy are discarded after a single use.It all makes the handling of solid wastes much more complicated and expensive
No-one can avoid the consequences of the uncontrolled garbage glut. ''When an environment is being polluted, everyone, regardless of his or her economic status or functions, suffers,'' says Dr Wahid Murad, a solid waste management specialist at Multimedia...
The ADB says the growing garbage crisis must be counterered by the 3 R's:
-Reducing the amount of waste,
-Reusing items that are now being discarded
-Recycling materials.
This is the thing that we should try to do. By reducing garbage everyday , reusing plastic bags, re-cycling news paper , magazines, brochures, old bills if you have baby , use cloth diapers.
I also keep all the cartoon boxes from the toilet paper , cartoon boxes of juices/milk, used envelopes , then once a month I sell it to the local recycling paper company. I do have problem with plastic bottles and container. I couldn't find any recycling company that willing to take/buy plastic botlles/container in Kota Kinabalu. If you happen to know one , please let me know.
Another great thing ,I heard from a friend that from the metal bottle taps of any bottles drinks, from beer bottles specially, can be remake into a wheelchair . This is a great news, imagine that something that you throw away can be so useful for other people.
I appologize that I can't recall the association's name now, I just want to make sure I mention the correct name .
And it is not too late to start doing the right thing.Everyone can do their part."It is not difficult to put recyclable items into plastic bags or put them into recycling bins near our homes" says Yaacob Ibrahim, Singapore's Minister for the Environment and Water Resources. " What would appreat as a small inconvenience initially is nothing compared to the benefits that will accrue to pur enviroment and livelihood in the long run."
How lucky am I to be a cloth diaper's mom. I know I am doing the right thing to our environment and I enjoy every second of it! You also can do something, find something simple do, and start to reduce our waste!
During my recent trip to China, I saw there are many young ladies using a canvas tote , I think it is the new trend over there, with the green writing of : I AM NOT A PLASTIC BAG RE-USE ME! or " PROUD TO BE A RE-USABLE BAG". I think the bags are so cute and sending a great message to people.
There are so many other things we can do to be gentler to our Planet. Our children deserve to live in a better place.
I also keep all the cartoon boxes from the toilet paper , cartoon boxes of juices/milk, used envelopes , then once a month I sell it to the local recycling paper company. I do have problem with plastic bottles and container. I couldn't find any recycling company that willing to take/buy plastic botlles/container in Kota Kinabalu. If you happen to know one , please let me know.
Another great thing ,I heard from a friend that from the metal bottle taps of any bottles drinks, from beer bottles specially, can be remake into a wheelchair . This is a great news, imagine that something that you throw away can be so useful for other people.
I appologize that I can't recall the association's name now, I just want to make sure I mention the correct name .
And it is not too late to start doing the right thing.Everyone can do their part."It is not difficult to put recyclable items into plastic bags or put them into recycling bins near our homes" says Yaacob Ibrahim, Singapore's Minister for the Environment and Water Resources. " What would appreat as a small inconvenience initially is nothing compared to the benefits that will accrue to pur enviroment and livelihood in the long run."
How lucky am I to be a cloth diaper's mom. I know I am doing the right thing to our environment and I enjoy every second of it! You also can do something, find something simple do, and start to reduce our waste!
During my recent trip to China, I saw there are many young ladies using a canvas tote , I think it is the new trend over there, with the green writing of : I AM NOT A PLASTIC BAG RE-USE ME! or " PROUD TO BE A RE-USABLE BAG". I think the bags are so cute and sending a great message to people.
There are so many other things we can do to be gentler to our Planet. Our children deserve to live in a better place.
Heal The World
Make It A Better Place
For You And For Me
And The Entire Human Race
There Are People Dying
If You Care Enough
For The Living
Make A Better Place
For You And For Me
Make It A Better Place
For You And For Me
And The Entire Human Race
There Are People Dying
If You Care Enough
For The Living
Make A Better Place
For You And For Me
Here is a bonus for you:
1 comment:
Sandra, this is fabulous. You are a great little reporter. Why don't you post a mini version of this article for the Cloth Diaper News? You can write about how Cloth Diapering is vital to reducing the amount of waste produced.
She is always looking for people to become volunteer writers or guest writers and I think you'd be perfect. Here's the link to see if you want to be a writer, I think you should! http://clothdiapernews.com/?page_id=15
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