Make a small difference. It goes a long way.

The newspaper reports that I have been reading about the waste dumping in Mandur, Karnataka really upset me. There was a front page report about how a senior citizen had died, unable to bear the stench of pollution.

So what can we do to prevent this? How can we help reduce the waste?

The thing is, generating this much of waste can easily be prevented. All of us can  put in that little bit of extra effort and sort waste at source. All of us can take responsibility for our waste. All it takes is a teeny weeny bit of change.

 Mine is an almost-zero waste household.The only waste that comes from my home is hazardous waste, that I cannot  compost at home. I also live in a community that segregates it's waste. We have a green-management team that does a splendid job on spreading awareness about waste segregation. We have red, blue and green bins, and  every single person in our residential complex  sorts out their waste at source.

I had blogged in detail about home composting. It is not hard to do at all, once you get the hang of it. It is really easy. Please click here to read that post.

If you live in a community that does not yet segregate waste, please do take the initiative. Form a core team. Start the segregation process. Educate the people involved, and most importantly educate the help that sorts the waste.

Here are the  simple things that you can do to contribute to manage waste better.

1. Refuse plastic bags and carry your own bags when you go shopping. This a really big step, if you think of the number of plastic covers that will be kept off the landfills, if every single person followed this small step.

2. Invest in a home composting bin. Compost all your kitchen waste. Home composting is really easy. The picture above shows my home compost bins. 

3. Re-use that stuff which comes only in plastic covers. Eg: Dosa batter that comes only in a cover, can be used as a planter. Same for Atta covers. (remember to make holes at the bottom and cover it with a stone for water to drain)  Or in case that is too much trouble for you, then rinse them out, collect it and give it to the raddiwala---where you can be sure it will be used.

I even re-use the Chinese takeaway containers. See picture on  the left.

 The metal containers can be painted with bright colors and used as a pen-stands or knick-knack holders. Look at what I have done with one of the metal containers. I just peeled out the label and reused it as a pen holder.

. The bottles can hold lovely money plants.  Above  is what I did with a few of mine. It makes a great centre-piece on my dining table. Here is another picture:

Where there is a will, there is always a way. It is easiest to be just indifferent. But the right thing to do is to start making a difference. Even a small one, in a small way.

Start doing your bit for the enviroment and let us all live in clean, beautiful surroundings. It is possible  with just a little effort from all of us.

And it begins by reducing the garbage we throw out.

Do leave me your thoughts on this. It is an issue which really bothers me. And I think collectively, we can all do our bit.(and make it  that much easier for the Municipal corporation that handles so much waste that they are reeling under the amount we collectively generate).
Agree?
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