Why screw the planet?

Lots and lots of plastic bottles lying around

We live in a developing country,

With a heavy cultural and religious bend!

Let us look at what we leave behind,

When we confidently go with the trend!!

Our economy is growing leaps and bounds,

The world watched amazed during the recession!

That growth generates a huge amount of waste,

Which when dumped looks like a big ocean!!

Our world today is driven by consumerism,

And every thing we use is disposable!

Our environment was never meant to cope with,

All the garbage that we leave on the table!!

We celebrate our festivals with grandeur,

But most have been taken over by hooliganism!!

We pollute air, water and land alike,

In this environment, can religion really blossom?

Most of the garbage end up in landfills,

Where huge amounts of greenhouse gases are released!

We do not understand the gravity of the problem,

And need to act before our planet is termed as deceased!!

We have already had a few eco-disasters,

With many more waiting to happen!

We need to wake up and act soon,

Before it is too late for any action!!

Let us realise while we can,

That we are losing time minute by minute,

Anyways we have 6 billion people around,

So why do we have to screw the planet?

Trashing our earth

To know what happens to our waste after we dump it, click here…

Let’s save Obama this Diwali

Fireworks during Diwali

It’s that time of the year again,
You can sense the festivities in the air!
Everybody is ready to celebrate Diwali,
With all aplomb and fanfare!!

Diwali is the festival of lights,
And it signifies the triumph of good over bad!
This year let’s light that little spark within all of us,
And be sensible, rather than going with the fad!!

Lets shun firecrackers this year,
Which have robbed many children of their childhood! (child laborers manufacture them)
Instead spend the money for their education needs,
And empower them to stand up and earn their livelihood!!

Manufacturing Firecrackers under hazardous conditions

Firecrackers indeed look good to the eye,
But they also cause noise and air pollution in the sky!
They affect ailing people and senior citizens,
And even plants and animals can’t take a sigh!!

Considering the impact to the environment,
Lets pledge to have a cracker free Diwali hereby!
Its still not too late to make a difference,
We have the choice to act and not deny!!
Or do we want our children and future generations,
To question us – Why didn’t you even try???

A typical polluted Diwali night

Firecrackers also cause many fire accidents,
Tears are shed when there should be hugs all around!
Let us light a thousand diyas and spread the light,
The light which will bring love and happiness abound!!

As India marches ahead in the 21st century,
We’ve shed our past image and began to flex our six pack!
Even the US President has chosen the Diwali night to land,
And we obviously don’t want to gift Obama an asthma attack!!

Diwali as it is meant to be - Joy and Happiness all around

What happens to our waste?

This is my second post on my “waste management” initiative after my first one. Also read my poem on waste “Why screw the planet?”

We generally term everything that goes into our dustbins as “waste“. Every day, tons of waste is generated in households, shops, markets, offices, educational institutions and others. For Bangalore itself, 3000 tons of waste is produced daily while the figure stands at 7000 tons in Delhi. We often put all our waste (paper, plastic, food waste, e-waste) into a single bin. From there we either throw it out on the road or some open plot, or the municipal body collects it from us. What happens to this waste from here on? Where is this huge amount of waste which we are generating everyday in our “throw-away” lifestyle going?

Kids picking up recyclables from trash

First of all, let me mention the little part which is actually recycled. You must have seen rag-pickers and waste-pickers picking up plastic and other materials from the waste lying on the roads. Most of these people are extremely poor, illiterate and belong to rural immigrant families. Many of them are kids who have never attended school. They collect our waste in most unhygienic conditions and are subjected to chemical poisons and infections. They are invisible entrepreneurs reusing and recycling our waste, reducing demand for natural resources. They are doing a huge public service to us and to our nation – for free. And yet, they get chased by dogs and abused by everyone. What an irony!!!

A normal sight in our towns

Lets take the case of burning of garbage now. As Indians we have got used to burning of garbage and that sight does not alarm us. Well, it should!! Because, it takes only five ounces of burning PVC to give off enough hydrogen chloride gas to kill someone in an average sized room in just TEN MINUTES. Even if it is not severe, it can cause the risk of damage to lungs, kidneys and liver. Long and continuous exposure to smoke and toxins (which appear harmless) can cause chronic diseases like bronchitis, emphysema and cancer. Apart from health effects, burning trash releases pollutants like dioxins, ash, furans, halogenated hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, lead, barium, chromium, cadmium, carbon dioxide, arsenic and mercury into the atmosphere resulting in global warming and ozone layer depletion.

Dumping trash in a landfill

Apart from recycling and burning of garbage, most of it reaches the landfill, which is a large open area where the garbage is dumped, covered by soil and left to decompose. Decomposing might take hundreds to thousands of years, and some materials never decompose. Landfills pollute and contaminate the ground water and soil. Animals like raccoons, rats, insects, cockroaches are attracted towards the area creating a health risk in the area. Landfills also release methane gas from decomposing garbage which is a dangerous greenhouse gas. Moreover, landfills are not a solution as it encourages garbage creation. It takes away land from humans and other animals and considering the amount of trash we generate these days, we may soon run out of land to use as landfills.

Living in a society driven by consumerism we have come to accept the “use and throw” and “disposable” attitude as a way of life. It is our responsibility that we take care of the waste we generate to ensure a healthy environment to live in for our kids and future generations. Although it might look like a big problem with no solutions, garbage is not a problem. In fact, waste is a resource in disguise. Using the term “garbage” let us see it only as a problem and not an opportunity. Seeing it as a resource can present enormous opportunities to us, for better disposing and recycling, for reducing pollution, for creating employment and businesses, and for making our earth safer and beautiful to live in. I will share more about these opportunities in future posts, so watch out for more.

Take a look at the below slideshow to know more and what we can do about it…

Where does our waste go?

View more presentations from Sumit Gupta.

New Initiative – “No-Waste”

I am writing this post after a gap of more than a month. Over the last month or so, I have got introduced to the idea of “Waste Management” and have been doing some information gathering on the same. For those who have no idea what I am talking about, Waste Management is the collection, processing, recycling, or disposal of waste materials in an eco-friendly manner. Currently, most of the waste produced in our cities are mixed together (dry/wet, bio-degradable/non bio-degradable) and dumped in landfills. There, it is either burnt releasing harmful gases or left to rot or decompose which might take thousands of years (or never in the case of non-bio degradable products). Moreover, we are running out of land to store all our waste.

Normal scene on many roads in India

Improper ways of waste handling have resulted in turning our cities and roads into dump yards which is never a pretty sight. Moreover, all kind of diseases such as cancer, anemia, suppressed immune system are a result of release of poisonous gases and ground water contamination.

However, by using eco-friendly ways of Waste Management, we can reduce the waste going to landfills by as much as 80% (even more in some cases) and save a lot of environmental / health related issues by properly disposing off / recycling the waste materials. Organic waste (food, leaves, peels) can be converted into rich compost. Paper, plastic and glass can be recycled. E-Waste can also be disposed properly without releasing toxic chemicals to the air or soil.

The question all of us need to ask ourselves is, Do we want our children and future generation to live in this environment? Is this the legacy we are going to leave behind for the future generations? The answer is certainly a NO for me, and I am going to continuously share any findings / activities related to the same here.

Why 15 Aug 2010 was one of the best Independence Days I have had in my life?

Independence Day comes every year on the 15th of August, and this was the 26th time I witnessed it. Over the last few years, it has been awaited more for the holiday it brings than for the occasion. During the school days, there would be flag hoisting ceremonies and some functions highlighting the patriotic sentiments. Back home, there would be patriotic songs and movies playing on television. In the last year 5 years, it was only just another holiday. But this year was different! One of the best Independence Days I have had for a long long time.

Unity in Diversity

I have been volunteering as part of YEFI (Yahoo Employee Foundation Initiative) to teach English to school kids in a school which is partially funded and supported by Yahoo. More than the teaching itself, it is the interaction with the kids, most of whom belong to poor families, which has been a wonderful experience so far. Most of the kids speak only Kannada, Tamil or Telugu and neither Hindi nor English, so I thought communicating with them would be a big problem. But let me tell you, you don’t need a language to interact with kids. Kids are always natural and self expressed, and they often remind us of the fact that we were once like them!! And interacting / having fun with them on Saturdays for two hours really takes care of all the tension / stress one has in life.

Getting Ready for the Occasion

This Independence Day fell on a Sunday, and we decided to visit the school for the customary Independence Day prayers and some events to mark the day. We first went to a Parikrama school, which is funded totally by Yahoo. When we reached the school the program had already started. There was a dance highlighting the different religions in India and the “Unity in Diversity” theme. Then there were few patriotic poems in Kannada but I still managed to get the crux of it 😉 Then the teacher called all of us to the front and we had some interaction with the students. Then we were given “Happy Independence Day” greeting cards made by the students themselves. This was their special way of welcoming us and treating us on the special occasion. My card read “Happy Independence Day, Sumit Anna” (Anna is brother in Kannada)

The Tricolor Flying High

The Father of the Nation

After this, we left for the government school where I had been volunteering. They were preparing for the flag hoisting ceremony when we reached there. They had marked the ground with the Indian Map, and placed the flag pole in the middle of it. On the side there was a portrait of Mahatama Gandhi. Soon the teachers started an Aarti for the Father of the Nation. It was a wonderful feeling witnessing this. After the Aarti, the flag was hoisted by the Headmaster which was followed by “Jana Gana Mana”. After this, we were given roses by the school authorities to mark the day. As I knew quite a few kids of the classes I have taught in my previous visits, we interacted with the kids for some time before leaving.

Kids and Innocence on their faces

Kids are free of the biases, prejudices and political agendas that cloud our point of view, they see things as they are and fully express themselves without the fear of feedback, which is an ability we lose somewhere as we grow up. They know the real meaning of love, be it for fellow human beings or for the country. They are innocent and open to life fully. There is more for adults to learn from children than the other way round. Whether they are playing marbles in the sand, or just riding their tricycle, or playing with toys, they put every bit of their energy into it. Watching them, and interacting with them is something I have always cherished. I would recommend nobody should lose touch with children. Take a moment to ask yourself when was the last time you played around with children, and if the answer is more than a month, I will suggest you find a way to indulge yourself with kids, be it with the son of a friend, or a neighbor, or anybody else.

After I was back home, I realized what a wonderful time I had. With time, we have started to treat our festivals only as holidays and forgotten the festivities associated with them. But this year, I actually saw people celebrating our Independence Day with pride and honor. The way it was supposed to be, the way it should be – the most important festival of our free country. Let us keep the spirit of this country alive. Jai Hind!!

Simple, yet beautiful

Sumit Gupta – Deploy Yourself

How to find, nurture and unleash your most authentic self?

Society

Why screw the planet?

Let’s save Obama this Diwali

What happens to our waste?

New Initiative – “No-Waste”

Why 15 Aug 2010 was one of the best Independence Days I have had in my life?