A Little Less Conversation, More Action

When I was five, I wanted to be the captain of a multicolored ship. I pictured myself on a rainbow coloured ship sailing all over the world. Even the phone on my ship would have rainbow colours, I decided. It seemed pretty straightforward and simple. As I grew older, my fantasy changed to that of a Marine Engineer, and I even started to draw pictures of my container ship at sea. Unfortunately all that came to a full stop when I realized I absolutely hated math, a subject that’s very important if I wanted to be an engineer. With all those childhood dreams going to pieces, what would I do? In time, school was finished with and like a lot of 14 year olds, I didn’t know what path to choose, but eventually, I was advised to study engineering, and so I did.

The course was interesting, and practical, and 4½ years later, I was an engineer, working in an Industrial estate. The job was interesting, but after a while, I felt undervalued and frustrated. I didn’t seem to have enough time to work on things that I really liked doing… spending time outdoors, and learning more about the environment. I began getting upset, stressed and frustrated as I saw no real way out. Seems that our society only accepts engineers and doctors as the most respected professions, so could I find a respectable job by running after butterflies or recycling some pots and pans from home?

But strange as it might sound, I quit my 9-5 job, and that was the best thing I did for myself. At first, I didn’t know if I did the right thing, as I was homebound, and quite frankly a bit confused. I began pursuing my environmental thoughts quite randomly. I remembered that a school friend and I had once picked up junk from our own homes and cycled to a scrap yard to sell it for some pocket-money. We made 26 Rupees each, and it was an interesting experience too. I learnt that a lot of things could be recycled and later on that made me wonder if there were possibilities to recycle materials such as plastic carry bags. I had also attended a composting workshop organized by the Goa Foundation, and like most participants, I would have forgotten putting into practice the newly learnt skills of composting. Fortunately, I had saved all my notes in a folder.

Why not simply start just like that? I wondered. And so I did. Pulling in experiences from here and info from there, I began my first environmental steps amateurishly and on my own, I began working with a crude waste management model. My grandmother told me that difficult days had taught them to be thrifty. She reused what she could, and sold what she did not need like old tins, bottles, plastics and newspapers to household scrap dealers for financial incentives. I learnt that this system still functioned in villages and was an excellent way to recycle, earn some money and ensure that resources were reused rather than thrown into a heap of garbage. Jotting notes on what could be recycled and what got composted, I took some ideas from a visit to Sweden, and made my own sorting list. Once done, I began visiting scrap yards, and talking to recyclers who offered to buy my waste. My father helped me start our own compost station that cost just 500 rupees to make! Along the way, I found out that I was not alone, and I have to acknowledge a number of individuals, NGOs and networks mostly based in Goa for increasing my knowledge base. Most of this is done by comparing notes, or sharing information for improving waste management models.

Today, I still believe that actions speak louder than words. It’s always easy to talk about wanting to do stuff, but walking the talk is more challenging. There are ways to help you start though, make a timetable or set a deadline that you could stick to. Don’t bite more than you can chew. Perhaps it might be easier to take on a major project in smaller phases so that your waste management project does not overwhelm you. Ask for advice and information. We have a number of people in Goa that have practical experience in waste management. Finally, instead of waiting for the final push from somebody, surprise everybody and make a start on your own...

You still have a week more to send in your quantifying lists and receive an award as a token of encouragement. We then will move on to making your own sorting list.

Let's hear from you! Email klintvaz@gmail.com or arati05@gmail.com You can even post a letter to us at 'Goa Going Green' C/o Arati Das, Gomanatak Times, Gomantak Bhavan, St. Inez, Panjim, Goa

Photocredit: Internet for 1 and Clinton Vaz for 2. This is the 3rd article in the eco-talk series that appears on a weekly column on Gomantak Times. This article appeared on GT, 25th September, 2008 Pg. A10

Time to Quantify Your Waste

Most people interested in sorting out their own garbage problem often say that they don’t know where to begin. Most of the common questions I have heard people ask are: Will it take a lot of my time? Should I buy a compost bin first? Where do I dispose the plastics? What about batteries? Can I burn some of my waste if I take care of the rest? Who are the people that I ought to contact for all of the above?

Waste Management basically has four main aspects: Proper Awareness, Collection, Transportation & Treatment/Disposal. And when planning to put an environment- friendly and sustainable waste management system in place, you need to first look at both ends of this chain first before you get to the middle. You can’t do much if you don’t have responsible places for the waste to go to. At the same time, you can’t do all of this, if you and those living with you don’t understand how to do it.

Per capita waste generation is on the rise because of our current lifestyles. As per today’s figures, an average Goan generates 200-500gms of garbage per person per day. We are fortunate not to live in American or European lifestyles, where the figures are much higher at 3,500 to 5,000gms per day. But we now know that we are responsible for the waste generated, but average figures aside, do we know how much we individually generate ourselves? After all, nobody can plan any infrastructure without the right figures. It’s also interesting to re-assess ourselves once in a while, to check if we still are on the right path to sustainability.

Waste Characteristics, Quality of Waste or Waste Inventories are all fancy words for looking into your bin to see what makes up your waste. In late 2005, while I worked in Panjim, a team of 180 sanitation workers helped me individually weigh and empty each of the city’s garbage bins and then to cross check, we weighed the garbage trucks too, to get fairly accurate quantities of separated waste over a three-week period. With smaller quantities, you should be better off, and quicker in doing the same in your own home.

Quantify your Household waste
Now here’s an activity that can be done by everybody in your household. More participation will lead to more understanding of your own waste problem, so involve the kids and maid too. All you need is a pencil & a paper and 5-10minutes per day of study.

Start with making a list of the various rooms and open spaces in your home. Next, walk around and list and count items in each of these rooms and spaces that can potentially be waste within the same year. As an example, the bathroom list would contain things like shampoo bottles, toothpaste tubes, and tooth brushes. You would add perfume bottles, toilet rolls and perhaps used soap wrappers. Make a note of them all and the quantity of generation in that room. You may mention common fixtures like light bulbs that are in all rooms once for the entire household.

In the kitchen, make note of the type of waste going into the bin. Roughly quantify the amount of vegetable waste, fish waste, meat, bones etc. Note the number of milk bags/cartons thrown away, the number of plastic carry bags thrown away, then number of other food item containers/bags thrown away as well.

If you have a garden or some household plants, include the leaves and plant cuttings into this list as well.

Sorting Lists
Once you have done that over a minimum of three separate days, you will have a comprehensive list of what waste you generate and the quantity of it generated at your home. Next week I shall help you classify these waste categories or fractions into a list as per local systems of treatment and disposal. This also helps you plan your waste management infrastructure such as the number of bins, and size of compost bin to use. This list, abroad is known as a sorting list. Sorting lists help households recognize the right fraction of waste when disposing their waste. A sorting list might seem unnecessary at first… we all know that a used pen would be placed in the hard plastic fraction, or an empty can be placed in the metal fraction. However, with more and more complex products coming out, the list can be useful. Examples of difficult to classify objects are items such as mobile phones, lighting bulbs and tubes or paper packaging with plastic or aluminum linings.

Get down to making your own quantifying list today. Sit down over your family dinner and discuss the makings of this list. Remember, there is a reward for this too. Every sorting list emailed or posted to us in the next 15 days, will receive a free usable wallet or purse made from recycled material as a token of encouragement. If you need any help in making this list, call me at 9890936828.

Let's hear from you! Email klintvaz@gmail.com or arati05@gmail.com You can even post a letter to us at 'Goa Going Green' C/o Arati Das, Gomanatak Times, Gomantak Bhavan, St. Inez, Panjim, Goa

Photocredit: Internet for 1, Pune Municipal Council & Clinton Vaz for 2 and Clinton Vaz for 3. This is the 2nd article in the eco-talk series that appears on a weekly column on Gomantak Times. This article appeared on GT, 19th September, 2008 Pg. A10

Goa Going Green

'Environment' just seems to be the latest buzzword. Pick up any newspaper, and I can promise you that there will be at least three or four news or info articles on the environment with at least one of them focusing on a garbage disposal problem. And this welcome trend seems to be only increasing. Unfortunately, most of what you learn about is the one sided negative side. Starting today, I plan a weekly interactive forum where you and I discuss environmental issues. To get a balanced view, lets talk about the good, the bad and the in-between's too. Besides just reading this series, I'd suggest that you cut and archive it for yourself, as I'll give out useful tips, detailed instructions, and local information for you to go green too.

Goans, living in a smaller state, with higher than national education levels, are already aware about the biggest environmental problems facing Goa today. Thanks to higher awareness levels of emerging problems, we now see Goan's immediately reporting, stopping further degradation, dumping or pollution. This has often been noticed by others in India looking at Goa when finding solutions to their own state problems. We are fortunate to have cleaner cities and countryside's, (only when compared to the rest of India) however, the question is, will we follow the rest of India as we seem to be doing today, or can we collectively set our state as an example for the rest of India and beyond?

Back in 1999, I was just an engineering student when I started to notice stirrings of environmentalism in Goa. There were a handful of NGOs and problems were beginning to be noticed. Today, almost 10 years later, those very same environmental problems have only grown to almost unmanageable proportions and led to other imbalances, which will result in further environmental degradation. While some now claim that we are at the tipping point, a few like me believe that we've already gone beyond.

When confronted with such problems, we blame, condemn and point at people we think that are responsible such as the local authorities, builders, industrialists, and the Government. But rarely do we include ourselves as society in this responsibility failure.

While most of these environmental problems crept up, due to apathy by the concerned authorities and stakeholders, it was also worsened by the failure of collective society such as you and me that passed by, and did nothing to make things better or report any violations. In certain situations, such as garbage problems, we don't realize that we are the ones that generate garbage, and therefore should share some of the blame, but more importantly some of the responsibility in managing the same.

In June-July 2008, I was attending an international conference on Climate Change in Sweden when I was told by a fellow delegate that we humans as a collective species really do care about the environment, but it's our lack of awareness that causes these problems. An aware citizen he told me, would do as much as he could to save the environment. The key to change therefore is combination of mindset change as well as proper awareness. Take the very relevant subject of Garbage as an example: Very few Goans know that we already have the potential to reduce our own garbage going to disposal by 85% or more by simple waste reduction techniques such as waste separation, organic waste disposal, recycling and changing our purchase patterns. Imagine, if Panjim and Margao's waste (together estimated to be 90-100 Metric Tonnes per day) was reduced by 85%, we'd just have to worry about disposing 10-15 Tonnes per day.

Instable governments, red tape, and misguided decisions are the main reasons that nothing seems to happen in Goa. Past and present politicians, irrespective of their political parties have proved to be ineffective in choosing the right technology for managing of waste. This has been seen by the failure of a lot of waste treatment facilities that were either improperly selected or chosen by the amount of monetary kickbacks. Projects or plants selected in the past have often utilized foreign technology that's highly mechanized which is good in the west but not necessarily here, or not localized to Goan climate and waste characteristics. Worldwide, most waste management technologies came into being after the 1960s, and continue to improve with experimental plants set up at various places in the world even today. However, history has proved that the ideal solutions for managing waste in Goa are tried and tested technology that's low cost, low tech, and localized to treat waste with Goan waste characteristics. It appears that civic authorities and politicians only look at environmental problems as ways to obtain money, rather than find solutions, and until then, working with the government is difficult.

There is light at the end of the tunnel however. Concerned citizens need not wait for civic authorities or the Government to put infrastructure and systems in place to make a difference as we already have solutions in Goa for waste reduction that function without Government assistance. Infrastructure as well as expertise is available locally, and next week, we shall discuss practical aspects to be taken into account of waste management in Goa, and even how YOU can begin putting a waste management system in place at your own home.

Do let me know your own opinions about local environmental problems in Goa. As mentioned earlier, this series hopes to be interactive, with do-it-yourself projects, informal workshops at a few locations in Goa and even an odd environmental crossword or quiz. You can join some 170+ GreenGoans on a free online forum called GreenGoa similar discussions and information.

Let's hear from you! Email klintvaz@gmail.com or arati05@gmail.com You can even post a letter to us at 'Goa Going Green' C/o Arati Das, Gomanatak Times, Gomantak Bhavan, St. Inez, Panjim, Goa

Photocredit: Clinton Vaz for 1&2 and GBA for 3. This is the 1st article in the eco-talk series that appears on a weekly column on Gomantak Times. This article appeared on GT, 11th September, 2008 Pg. A10