Why we
have so much wastage on our backyard?-written & posted by tim i
gurung -Sep 2009
Green, eco-friendly, recycle
and greenhouse
gas etc are the words we have been hearing almost daily on radio,
newspaper,
internet, on the streets from activists, government’s advertisements
and
billboard posters, offices, it is almost everywhere. It is probably the
most
popular subject of the 21st century and we are also seemed
to be all
into it doing our bits for the right reason. After all, it is all about
our
planet where we all lived in and called home. The problem of global
warming is
true and real. When you just take and take without giving anything back
in
return, the consequence is always devastating and disastrous. The
problem now
is so serious and critical that it has become the problem for each and
one of
us. Obviously it is not a laughing matter anymore and we just can not
keep
closing our eyes and ignore it.
Here are few steps
that we can
take to
reduce the total amount of wastage in Hong Kong.
Use less plastic
bags- The
government’s
initiation on levying fifty cents per extra plastic bags on all the
major
stores throughout Hong Kong is in fact a plausible act, however, there
are
still so many of the vendors/shops and stores around the streets of
Hong Kong
that until we can bring them all on the board, the usage of the plastic
bags
will be still in a very big volume. That should be the ultimate goal
otherwise
all the good starts will be just in vain.
Start recycling our
wastage-
Most of the
housing estates in Hong Kong already have separated recycling bins for
such as
plastic, aluminum, papers/cardboards etc. They are also advised to
separate the
recyclable wastage from the non-recyclable one. Notices and information
on
different languages are also provided. The young generations are quite
well aware
of the trends and are much conscious nevertheless, the main problem
seems to be
to the old generations, as the saying goes, good old habits never die,
as we
still think that going through with your wastage is really the waste of
time.
Use eco-friendly and
energy
conservable
products- We have been bombarded from almost all directions to use such
products for our house, however, it has never been so clear cut on the
claims
with such products, either they are too expensive or they are not as
good as
they claimed to be, I think these products can be only accepted to the
masse
when they are really they are as they claimed in quality and
performance and it
has to be extremely cheaper than what they are already in the market
now. It
should be the challenge for the makers of such products to come out
with the
solution, until then it will be a very hard nut to crack.
We should plant tree
or make
garden- The
best way to make less carbon emission in our places and streets is to
plant
trees and make gardens as much as possible on both sides of the roads,
streets,
empty places and balconies. They are not only good to see for our eyes
but also
soothing to our hearts and souls. It will also help absorb the heat and
carbon
dioxides from the atmosphere and make it less polluted.
We should also less
decorate
our houses-
Whenever there is a new owner in any apartments in Hong Kong, we have a
tendency of tearing it apart from inside out and put completely a new
decoration, I have seen myself in one of the particular apartment in
our floor
has been decorated for at least three times by the new owner, you might
argue
that it is my property so I will do as I want, however, I saw two major
drawback on doing just that. One, it is extremely noisy and disturbing
to the
neighbors, second, the wastage it will create would have been
definitely much
bigger than the floor’s wastage for whole month and not to mentioned
that it is
also very expensive. Therefore, sometime, I wonder why we can not just
keep the
same decoration as it already has, what is wrong with that? This way,
at least
we can save ours neighbors from the hell and also save a lot of money
at the
same time for rainy days. I did that when I got my apartment and will
also do
the same in the future.
Food wastage in
homes and also
in Schools
must be controlled- The amount of food that we throw away in homes and
in
schools is unbelievably high and we should be shamed of such wasteful
habits.
May be that is the sign of arrogance we might expect from the well do
society
which make you feel that it is all right to waste as long as you can
afford it.
However, unfortunately we have no one to educate us that because of
ours such
ignorant and selfish behavior, someone else will have to sleep hungry
tonight
that is very hard to explain. Nevertheless we should try our best to
minimize
the waste and also find a way to make reuse of the wasted food may be
as animal
feed or a fertilizer.
Minimize on
everything we do-
As an
ordinary citizen, one can not expect to do things in a big scale as
those of
the big corporations, organizations or government, however, there is
still a
thing that we can all do, that is doing ours bits, by minimizing
everything
that we do in our daily life, such as use less water, electricity,
paper, driving,
wastage etc. We can always be considerate, careful and also not being
greedy or
selfish by using the minimum possible in everything we do in our daily
life. If
we can all agree on that, the changes are for sure.
These are just the
few steps
that I have
described here, as the pressure is on to the government for finding the
right
and suitable places and solution to handle the ever increasing tones of
wastage
we create daily in Hong Kong. We are
all busy
and might not have time to think about it and also can not see the
urgency and
seriousness of the problem, but the time for the lip service and
shirking from
the responsibility and ignoring the obligation is gone, it is
definitely the time
to be little bit more serious and take the responsibility and action.
There is
simply no way out as it is not only for you and me but also for the
future of
our children and grandchildren. If this will still not make us wake up
and take
action thence I do not know what will. It is the time now!