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CHANGE
Your ATTITUDE
And It will CHANGE
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June 8, 2010

Conserve, Recycle & Discover —Environment


When I read about this contest at BlogAdda in partnership with Pringoo; I knew I had to write on this one. There is a very good reason for which one would have to get to the bottom of the post.

Global warming is taking place and the temperatures is soaring all over the world. Yet very little has been done to address this issue as the countries fail to unite in this challenge against global warming. I guess in the future we might come together; till that happens everyone of us has to find a way to do their bit for the environment. Here are my two cents on it:

Conserve

There are two most important things that a man of today cannot live without. One is electricity and the other is water.

There are so many places in India where power cuts and load shedding are the norm due to shortage of power supply. Life almost comes to a standstill when certain activities cannot be carried out thanks to the power cuts. Hence conserving electricity is of utmost importance. One can do that by making sure that lights, fans, etc. are used only in the room required. Make sure that when a computer is idle; switch off the monitor or put it in a standby mode. Switch to CFL bulbs instead of the ordinary incandescent light bulbs.

If you are wondering how saving power is equivalent to saving the environment, it’s because electricity is generated through a variety of raw materials like coal, gas & nuclear and even includes a small percentage of alternative resources of energy which is then send out through the electrical lines depending on the cities, state’s requirement as storing electricity is an expensive proposition.

So when you start saving electricity the demand of usage of the electrical units comes down and the same saved units can be used to send in places which face power cuts/load shedding thereby leading to less production of raw materials used to generate the same amount of electricity.

Water shortage is another grim reality that is staring at our faces. Make sure that one keeps the tap running only when in use. Also replace the leaking/faulty taps as they waste water. “Boond Boond Se Sagar Banta Hain” (Every drop of water makes the ocean swell). If possible introduce rain water harvesting methods in your buildings, societies as they help to store rain water and use it for various purposes.

Also make sure that one does not uses plastic bag when outside as they are not easy to recycle and takes around 300 years to degrade.

Recycle

One of the ways papers can be reused is to collect the pamphlets, papers, printouts which are printed only on the one side and blank on the other side. One can make a notepad out of it to scribble, maintain a to-do list or any another uses. I have done this and have a stack of my journals made out of this.

There are times when we gave away our old stuff which can still be use to scrap dealers. Instead of doing that; one can use the Freecycle network where items in working conditions are passed on to other users for free who needs them thereby resulting in recycling.

If you are one of the creative minds; you can use the items/objects not in use to create something unique or could simply pass it on to children as an activity exercise to build something out of it.

Discover

E-Recycle: We need to setup centers for safe disposal and recycle of electronic waste as they sometimes contain lead, cadmium, beryllium, mercury, and flame retardants. The number of electronic waste keeps going up as newer technology comes in place and the user chooses to dispose off their old electronics gadgets and not recycle them which are harmful to the environment. Setting up such centers would address these issues.

P.S. The reason for writing this post is because of my friend who lived in a load shedding area; asked us people living in the suburbs of Bombay to make sure that we don’t waste and instead save electricity as they have to face the brunt of it. Hope she is happy with what I have wrote :)

BTW, Dreamygal decided to shower this blog with two more awards, please check out the award section for that.

13 comments:

Rakesh Vanamali said...

Conservation and more importantly a change of attitude is the need of the hour, though it may sound very clichéd to say so!

We surely have to realize that the situation is far more dangerous and out of control than what we perceive it to be!

Good write and many congrats on the awards!

Anshul Kumar Pandey said...

Well....the European countries have specialized companies for the dumping and recycling of e-waste. These things cannot be recycled by common people using ordinary meausers which may otherwise lead to hazardous consequences.

These links may shed more light on the topic.

http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/27/how-to-recycle-your-old-gadgets/
http://techcrunch.com/2007/10/02/recycle-your-used-gadgets-for-cash-at-secondrotation/
http://www.recycle.co.uk/
http://www.friedbeef.com/9-ways-to-recycle-your-gadgets-a-head-to-head-comparison/

rohini said...

good post man...global warming is a serious issue...and we need to take serious measures for it..thnx for selecting an important topic...
cngrts on the award...

Maya said...

i think in india pretty much everything gets recycle, not much waste here

Grayquill said...

Hmmm...Many good points but I am not sure I am a believer about the paper recycling being that beneficial - although I have to admit I know little about it. But I wonder what the energy consumption is and how many chemicals and bleaches are required to make trash paper good paper.
Of course we consumers want the whitest white paper - the old 82 bright which was the standard for years is now considered dull and yellow. We insist on 92 to 96 brightness. Imagine the chemicals required to gain those extra points. Of course I could be totally wrong.

Sh@s said...

If only each one of us were a bit more responsible and did our bit about the energy n water conservation instead of smirking when one reminds us to save water or to close the dripping tap properly, a part of the scarcity problem would have been solved.

Sh@s said...

Hi! forgot to add. Plz do check out my blog, therez something waiting for you.

Indian Home Maker said...

I feel I live an environment friendly life... simple living and remembering how much environment matters is crucial. Thankfully this is being taught in schools too now.

What bothers me more is the way the lights are left on in the park behind my house - all day - all night... and I am sure it's the same story all over India. The awareness needs to reach everywhere.

Deepali said...

Nice post. On most days we don't even think about what we are consuming and what we are wasting. It's sad that we either forget or ignore the plight of others.

Btw Freecycle seems like a very interesting concept. Will check it out in detail later.

Tall Guy said...

@ Rakesh

Thanks Mate.

@ Anshual Pandey

Welcome to the den of the Tall Guy

Yes, but in India there is no such system followed which makes us susceptible to radioactive materials/radiation that are used in these electronics.

Tall Guy said...

@ Rohini

Thanks Rohini.

@ Uncommon Sense

You would be surprised by the reality :)

Tall Guy said...

@ Grayquill

That is something that I don't know of. I hope that is not the case when they claim recycled paper saves trees from cutting.

@ Shas

Very well put. Thanks for awards once again :)

Tall Guy said...

@ IHM

That will take time :)

@ Deepali

Good to see you back. How are you?

Freecycle is good, one would be surprised the items that people are willingly to give out for free.