It sounds crazy but it is possible. By just a simple method called recycling, we can be rich. Landfills are so full now, that we are almost out of space to throw anymore garbage.
I’ve known a lady who’s staying in my apartment who collects recyclable items from the garbage bins just within our apartment area. She pays her monthly bills using the money from selling the recyclables, imagine that. She literally sells things that are being thrown away by people who are unaware of recycling.
I’m not telling you to search them from the garbage bins. You can easily set up 3 boxes in your house. Simply separate your garbage into glass, paper & plastics and metal. Then you can either sell them off to recycling centres or like myself, I just put the recyclables next to the big garbage container (as we are not provided with proper recycle bins in at our apartment garbage area) to be collected by anyone including the lady I mentioned. I do it for the sake of the environment to help out the poors.
Recently, my whole family was watching this show, a very informative show about how a company in Semenyih, Malaysia recycles garbage.
This is my summarized version of the process.
1) Garbage trucks collect garbage from residentials
2) Garbage trucks send garbage to the recycling centre and unloads to a wide but closed area.
3) Bio-enzyme is then sprayed on the garbage to reduce stinky smell and to prevent flies. (See, how useful is enzyme! Keep following my blog to learn the process of producing enzyme in your home.)
4) Then the garbage is separated by plastics, paper, glass and metal using human’s manually power, pity those foreign workers..
5) For plastic bags alone, they are first cut and stripped into small pieces, then, washed. This followed by the plastics being melted in a type of hot liquid and later being formed into pallets (my Karson said it looked like fish food)
6) Most of our garbage particularly food are wet. No water from the garbage is thrown straight into the river as it is still contaminated. The water from this garbage is collected into a special treatment pool to be cleansed and treated. The final round of water looks as if it can be drinked! Clear and clean. But, they are not for drinking, instead, it is used to clean the area around the recycling centre, including garbage trucks before they leave the centre.
7) Paper, metal and glass is processed separately to be reused and reformed.
8) The rest of the garbage is burnt to generate electricity. Nothing goes to waste.
The show’s name is Panorama shown on TV1 on 21 Oct 2010 at 2130
Phew, at least now I know we have such ‘canggih’ recycling centres in Malaysia that is taking care of part of our garbage. So hope there. This doesn’t mean that we should be using more than what we need, please reduce!!!
Reasons for you to use containers for shopping fish/meat instead of plastic bags
- Reusable
- Non-spill/non-leaking (get water/air-tight ones),(I am very irritated with fish red juice from fish/meat, I'm sure you are too.)
- Reduced contamination
- Convenient - They go straight from the market, into my freezer. Sometimes I do separate the fish/meat into smaller containers. When it is time to cook, I would remove the container from freezer down to the chilled compartment in my fridge for the next day's cooking.
- Your freezer would be more organised
- LESS TRASH made from plastic bags
Posted by
Kan Hong Hong
10:08 AM
I went to the morning wet market with my mother-in-law (MIL) one day and I discovered 2 things.
First was that my MIL could actually walk for 3-hours non-stop shopping...and I had to carry the things bought for 3 hours straight. She enjoyed very much selecting the best vegetables etc. I'm not complaining as I really had to salute her. It was my pleasure to make her happy simply by going to wet market with her.
Second thing I realized was that during the shopping trip, we were given about 50, yes 50 as in FIFTY!!! plastic bags (those orange/red thin plastic bags), each for one type of vegetables. Actually, I was carrying a recycling bag with me and I had tried to stop the sellers to not provide any of those bags, but my MIL kept saying 'It's okay, we would need the bag later at home'. At her home, I saw a very very large plastic storing all the unused plastic bags, without being used at all. Imagine if she ever throws that into the landfills or even into the sea..They might end up in the tummy of our beautiful turtles. The orange/red coloured plastics are the most dangering bags...it is not easily bio-degradable, most hundreds of years...
How I do my shopping without using plastic bags
I tried very hard to not get any bags from sellers in the market...I put everything in my recycling bags. Here are what I always bring with me when I do my wet market shopping.
Bags I own, easy to carry, do not hurt my hands!
A big washable plastic recycling bag for my vegetables/fruits from Giant
A big tough shopping made from organic Fairtrade cotton (feels like 'kain guni') from Tesco.
Inside layered with plastic for easy wash. And I think they even replace you with any worn out bags...check it out in their website.
Containers for meat, fish or even tofu. It prevents spills, it is more hygienic, and convenient.
Straight into the freezer they go. Looks more organised too. No more 1-use plastic bags to be thrown!!...Even the butcher told me, 'Wow, you are an organised person'. I said 'Thanks!!'
Vegetables/fruits are stored and sealed in 'GLAD' plastic bags. Normally, after each use, I will wash and dry it up for next use. I only throw them away when they are soggy, into my plastic recycling bin of course...For more long lasting vegetables, you may even wrap them up with newspapers. Send them to you recycle bins after use.
Found this site very interesting. Stop Plastic Bags Campaign. Appreciate your fullest support! Together we save our children's future!
It was a laid-back Saturday morning, with the morning sun streaming through my leaf-printed curtains. Soft wind was blowing into the small opening of the window. First, I was awaken by a kiss on my cheek, then he ran his fingers through my soft brown hair....
Then I felt his hand touching my right arm so tenderly, then my left arm. Finally he said , "Mama, why is your skin so soft? Softer than mine". That was when I thought, 'Wow, this Vaseline lotion really made progress on my skin, even my 3 year-old son could feel the difference! '
A couple of months ago, while in a pharmacy where I was queuing to pay, I saw this trial-sized Vaseline moisturizer being displayed in front of the counter. I was still using a body moisturizer from another brand then and I was not very happy using it. I thought, Oh, what the heck, let's try this one, unscented, it's easy to be carried to everywhere I go, and best of all, only RM 2.90. No harm trying.
I gotta tell you I love anything that's natural. From food to colours, from make-ups to character, I like them to be natural. Being an environmental freak makes me more aware of the content of any products that I'm using especially those on my skin.
Vaseline moisturizers provides me comfort, it not only transformed my skin to soft, smooth baby skins, but it is safe for my children too. I do not have to worry about any strong scents like other moisturizers are having, which could be too sensitive for my little children while I am cuddling them.
And the moisture is locked on my skin every time I apply it on my whole body. I only have to replenish it every time I shower/wash my hands. Vaseline, my trusted brand!!
Am I moist enough? My son would tell me...'YES, MAMA, as long as your skin is smooth, I don't mind you being fat'....so consoling....hehe
Vaseline gives me after-spa feeling!
How to reduce the use of plastic bags? By reducing and recycling of course! The more we recycle, the less plastic bag we use for dumping our garbage. The only garbage I throw is organic substance such as food, fish bones, and stuff. I only throw away a small bag everyday, still figuring out if there's any paper bag which can be used as garbage bags. Sometimes, I create my own paper bag for garbage if the garbage is not so wet and soggy.
Everything else goes to my things to be recycled.
I group my recyclable items to 3 bags.
- 1 bag for plastics and aluminium/steel. (Better if you can separate them)
- 1 bag for glass bottles
- 1 bag for paper made products
My recyclables
Surf on to this website RecycleAndReward that provides rewards for your recyclables!!! I have just signed up and please tune in as I will be telling you what I obtain from there.
Lastly, if I can do this in my 850 ftsq apartment, you and you and you should also do it!!
Posted by
Kan Hong Hong
6:19 PM
No parking needed, only trees and a chain!
Found this bycicle parked at Old Klang Road-Puchong intersection. No usage of petrol, better for the environment, the only problem is rain!!!
I love the concept introduced in the Earth Hour campaign. The awareness created is tremendous. Most people think that recycling is the only way to make our world a better place to live in. However, energy conservation is important too. Energy is transferred/converted from 1 form to another, it has to be in a form and most of the time the latest form is the heat produced. Heat contributes to global warming. In 100 hundred years, global temperature has increased by 0.74ºC whereby, the 0.4ºC increase happened in last 30 years.
Read below, it's scary to even think about it.
[Averaged over all land and ocean surfaces, temperatures have warmed roughly 1.33°F (0.74ºC) over the last century, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. More than half of this warming—about 0.72°F (0.4°C)—has occurred since 1979. Because oceans tend to warm and cool more slowly than land areas, continents have warmed the most (about 1.26°F or 0.7ºC since 1979), especially over the Northern Hemisphere.]
It concerns me and I always try my very best to bring out awareness among my family and friends. Here hopefully, I can contribute a tiny bit to help our future, our children and even children's future.
There was a online essay contest which I took part and I was surprised I got a call from the organiser who announced I was one of the winners!! Tell me what you think of it!
My son holding the prize, a limited edition Earth Hour bag
My winning essay:
Remember the days when people drove with the car windows wound down?
That was 30 years ago………Remember the days when our mothers used to sit at the porch doing their daily chores eg. plucking vegetables, sewing or reading newspaper while watching their children playing in the gardens? That was 30 years ago…..Remember the days when we only heard the classroom fans spinning loudly during our exams? That was 30 years ago…
Scientists say that the earth appears to have been warmer since 1980 than at any time in the last 18 centuries. Just imagine that we took less than 30 years to heat up a planet which has existed more than 4 billions years!!! The main culprit? Human’s lifestyle. Most people can’t survive without air-conditioners now. As for me, I love the sun so much that without it shining brightly for even a couple of days would make me feel gloomy. I’m not saying that I would sit under the sun like most westerners like to do during summer. It’s just that I could bear with our hot weather just fine without air-conditioners at most times.
How do I keep my body cool? What I always do is to imagine that I’m feeling cool! Sweating is just a part of cooling process, so it’s fine to sweat! I don’t mind if my body feels sticky! It’s all in our mind. Yoga played a big part to control my mind. Though I seldom practice it now, at least my mind is set to be cool!
When I really really need to use the air-conditioner (especially on hazy days), I would just set it to 26 degrees Celcius and together with a fan operating at lowest speed. This will help in slowing down global warming and help save on my electricity bills too!
Posted by
Kan Hong Hong
11:10 PM
I came from a struggling middle class family, not too poor if compared to some families with women who had to work on farms while carrying their children on their back, not as bad as that. My dad was a salesman for a hardware store and mom used to babysit children.
We got through fine with the 'saving' mindset in every one of us in the family. We were taught to save whatever and whenever we can. My mommy used to teach us to collect rainwater and the water used to wash rice to water our plants later in the day.My mommy also taught us to switch off lights in all unoccupied rooms in the house.
These were mom's simple instructions for the purpose of saving money. Now we do what we did because we have a different vision. The vision is to save our beloved Mother Earth.
Being obsessively devoted to this issue, it used to make me feel upset over the critical deterioration of our Earth in less that 3 brief decades.
I starting caring for the environment since I was a teenager. I was inspired by the cartoon we used to watch : Captain Planet..I still remember its theme song, my goodness...and the other day I just sang it to my children...I love it so much that I had used some of the phrases in my poem submitted to my school mag. |
My published poem inspired from the cartoon series 'Captain Planet'.
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I had greater awareness when I started scuba-diving....seeing and hearing about coral bleaching made me so sad, that I decided to be eco-friendly in whatever I do. I've known some diving instructors who are super-aware on the environment, that inspired me too. Underwater living organisms are in great danger from cyanide fishing (a method using poisonous compound to fish) as well as the pollution caused by human...I found some countries actually use their sea to become garbage slums! Turtles are especially attracted to these slums as they see plastic bags as their main source of food, the jelly fish!! They end up choking to death or trapped in the tonnes of garbage....:( |
I love turtles. Knowing about turtles extinction (especially the ever-graceful princess, the leather-back turtle, the largest of its species, also called penyu belimbing in Malay) awakens me more. My school text books used to display pictures of leather-back turtles, that were still landing in Malaysian beach, 'Rantau Abang' in the 1980's. It only took less than 1 decade to make them disappear...started with people eating their precious eggs...:( and of course the disturbance they get during their process of laying eggs.
But we certainly cannot give up on her...Recently, it is discovered that she has returned to Rantau Abang in 32 years!! Yipee!..
Click here to read article courtesy from Yahoo! GREEN.
Tune in to read more about more animals under threat. |
Help Mother Nature
