 |
 |
|
|||||
|
Issue 00470 |
May 26 - June 1, 2007 |
issn 0856 - 9135 |
||||
|
|||||||||||
|
Environment |
|
Is waste really a waste? Lesson from the young generation
By Zeinab Dakik and Jasneeraj Hans
Remember when you were small and the environment around you was not that dirty. Now look around at the mess, what a shameful sight! The Earth has given us a lot, the soil on which we grow our food and the water for us to drink. So we should be thanking the earth but instead we are littering and destroying the earth that we depend on. The earth was very beautiful in the beginning, and still can be, but only if we do not litter and be responsible for our actions.
We know how to keep our houses clean but don’t realize the mess thrown out of our houses ends up by the streets in some rubbish bin or pavement floor or some open ground. Littering out in public areas has become a habit as people are ignorant of the fact that what little they dispose of leads to a huge pile in no time. This waste gathers around us or at the dump sites causing to be the source of pollution of the soil and water. If at all one looks around when driving around town or just sitting from anywhere, you see children, men and women your age picking up our litter. Even the saddest sight of elderly people cleaning up on our behalf, all should be treated with respect for they play the most important role in trying to clean our environment.
Solid waste is dealt in different ways, gets left to be decomposed or burnt. The open dump sites become a breeding place for insects and flies which carry germs into our home and infect our food causing all sorts of sicknesses. Then there is the smoke from the burning of solid waste which consists of hazardous materials like chemicals, which produce toxic smoke and pollutes the air.
Separating our waste is important as the waste being produced today is causing a problem in managing it in a proper manner. A larger portion of the municipal solid waste can be recycled, a part of it can be converted into compost and only a small portion left is real waste that has no use and has to be discarded.
Recycling allows materials to be used again, such as paper, plastic, glass and metal scrap. Such materials are nowadays being sold for recycling and this is definitely one way of reducing the waste around us.
Most of the rubbish produced at home can be reused and made into compost. Organic kitchen waste such as leftover food stuff, spoilt vegetable and fruits can be recycled by putting them in dug out pits in the gardens, left to be decomposed. The finished product which looks like soil is very rich in nutrients and is used as a fertilizer, therefore returning these nutrients back into the soil. It is clean, cheap and safe therefore reducing the amount of rubbish at the point of source, which are our homes.
As we are producing more waste each year because of the change in our lifestyles, only we can help with waste management from our households by sorting it out in different categories, by using kitchen waste for composting and earn money by selling recyclable material. This helps prevent creation of waste and reduces the amount thrown into the Municipal rubbish bins.
As we create more awareness amongst ourselves of the responsibilities towards managing waste and keeping our towns clean, this can also help in more job opportunities for the poor jobless people in our society. Jobs such as rubbish picking, sorting of the waste, collection of recyclable material and transporting unwanted waste to the dumps can be created. This can then lead to the locals making use of the waste by selling recyclable materials to factories and compost to small scale farmers.
We wish we could go back in time, shall we? But as the saying goes “It’s never too late.” Why don’t we make a difference NOW !
Zeinab Dakik & Jasneeraj Hans are P6 pupils at ISM Arusha Campus
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
