Reduce- Reuse

Few years back there was an article which said that currently we are consuming world resources in 9 months, what it can produce in 12 months.

For millions of years, earth has survived because rate of replenishment was more than the rate of consumption.

At the current rate, we are heading for a catastrophy. Already certain plant and animal species have become extinct, water is depleting, air is polluted etc.

Apart from normal sustainable practises like switching off lights when not required, keeping airconditioner on higher temperatures at comfortable mode, switching off geysar when not required etc, there are three main initiatives that I am following. They are as follows

Making Bio Enzymes

All the fruit peels specially those of citrus fruits, go into making of bio enzymes. It is a simple process where in just by adding water and jaggery in calculated proportions, you get a bottle of liquid bio enzyme in 3 months.

It is a wonderful liquid which on dilution can replace chemical laden floor cleaners, glass cleaners, dish wash liquid, bathroom cleaners etc. It works very well in home and kitchen gardens too.

Lots of information is available on internet and one must look into this. Maybe I will try to explain it in details in future.

composting

A common problem for all town and city administrators these days is disposal of household waste which is now at gigantic proportions.

A large city like Delhi, Gurgaon, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore generate over 1000 tons of household waste every single day. Half of it is wet waste. This wet waste is responsible for bad odour, spoiling of landfill and spoiling groundwater if it reaches to water table,

You must have seen that nowadays people are asked to seperate wet waste and dry waste. Dry waste can be recycled.

But why let wet waste go out of your house when it can be converted into a fertilizer in your own house and that too without any cost. You just need to put all your household wet waste in a composter, which is nothing but a earthen or plastic vessel, add some bacterias and then let them work. You just keep on adding daily wet waste into it and in 3 months you get a vessel full of nutritious fertilizer which can be used in your home garden or just spread in public park.

In my kitchen garden we have used only home made fertilizer and bio enzymes and it is as lush, green and gives abundant vegetables and produce.

Maybe someday, I will try to post more information on composting methods.

Solar energy

This one initiative we have taken at our place of work where 100 kw solar power plant was installed an year and half back. In its 453 days of working, it has prevented around 60 tons of co2 generation and its equivalent to planting 9000 trees.

Moreover, the electricity it generates repays the cost of the setup in just 4 years or so. A solar plant is something we all must consider specially those residing at places blessed with sunshine for most of the times in a year.

water harvesting

At our place of work, all water is directed towards underground tanks. On overflow it gets directed towards water harvesting pit.

If all the water that nature provides us in a year is collected, it will be sufficient for all our needs. Major part of it flows out to rivers and then to sea. In other cases running water just gets wasted by going in a drain.. By water harvesting, we are channeling water to ground water table for use in future.

It is everyone’s responsibility to contribute in his own way to reduce consumption, to reuse resources as much as possible to make world a sustainable place for our children.