ZEROWASTE GOA

 

Ever since the ‘ecobug’ has bitten me, I have trying to get my garbage down to ground zero. Believe me, when I first started out, I was embarrassed at the amount generated just by our one home. Its no wonder then that the entire countryside is littered with millions of little potties, bearing testimony to the fact that every home across our beloved state has its own sorry tale to tell. I looked at my dustbin a couple of days back and felt red-faced once again. Even with my most sincere efforts at bringing the level below the danger mark, I find that I still have a long way to go. 

Benaulim’s garbage guru, environmentalist Clinton Vaz wrote some time ago about his dream of a zero-waste Goa. He said, “My aim is to establish a low-cost, low-tech and sustainable waste management system that looks nice, doesn't cause problems and runs on its own. We can all do this with individual or community composting units and a recycling bin system that pays for itself when sorted out in local communities. My dream is to see a "zero waste" Goa, and so far we are doing well.”

When we have practiced good actions a while, they become easy; when they are easy, we take pleasure in them; when they please us, we do them frequently; and then by frequency of act, they grow into habits. We need to get into the habit, then, of refusing, reducing, reusing and recycling our garbage. This takes tremendous effort and fiery passion on our part, a will to persevere and to fight the good fight to the end. 

So, before you throw out anything, and I mean anything, into your garbage bin, look at it again and figure out a way to Reuse it rather than let it go a landfill. Reduce the garbage that exits your home. Refuse to bow down to the ‘Use and Throw’ culture; instead be a part of the movement to ‘Heal the World’ by following the 4Rs of Eco-Education.

REFUSE: Before you purchase an item from a shop, check its packaging. Is there too much of it? Can you switch to another brand with the same quality but with much less packaging? Can you purchase the same product or the equivalent of it at another shop that does not use packaging or that uses packaging which can be reused or recycled? Refuse plastic bags outright; carry your own or insist on goods wrapped in newspaper if you have forgotten to carry a plastic bag. 

REDUCE: Sometimes we buy several things in smaller quantities and increase the plastic garbage that comes into our homes. Store items in durable containers; carry these containers to the shop if you can so the items can be emptied directly into them instead of into plastic packaging. 

REUSE: More often than not, no matter how much we try, we can never successfully refuse or reduce the amount of plastic that enters our homes simply because we have no control over packaging. So, once we ‘accept’ the packaging along with the items bought, we need to make sure that it does not go to a landfill nor is it burned, thereby polluting air and water. One simple way of preventing this is by containing all dry, clean packaging within your home by putting it compactly into PET bottles. One can even put in milk packets after carefully cleaning and drying them. Communities and schools can then take up useful projects using such PET bricks to build water tanks, for housing, etc. If you can use the plastic waste in other effective ways for storage, like for example, to package foodstuffs or to store household items like shoes, clothes, etc, definitely reuse them, but make sure that once they have exhausted their use, they do not land up in your dustbin but into your PET bottles. If they are too big to fit, cut them down to smaller bits and put them in.

RECYCLE: If there are effective, economical and eco-friendly ways to recycle waste, make sure you send your waste there. For example, newspapers can be recycled, as also PET bottles. Glass bottles too are usually sent back to the factories for reuse. Find out where you can donate your e-waste.

Remember: 

Creative ideas do not spring from groups. They spring from individuals. G.K. Chesterton once said, “I've searched all the parks in all the cities and found no statues of committees. Could the play Shakuntala have been written by a committee, or the ‘Mona Lisa’ painted by a club? Could the New Testament have been composed as a conference report? Mother Teresa, Mahatma Gandhi, Anna Hazare, Warren Buffet, Steve Jobs, Nelson Mandela, these and many more bear testimony to the fact that the divine spark is transmitted from the finger of God to the finger of Adam (man). So do not despair that you are alone in your crusade against the evil of garbage. Make it your passion and it will drive you to perfection, to a zero-waste home – and a ZERO WASTE GOA!