Grass root recycling

Nargis Latif, the founder of Gulbahao, a non-governmental organization (NGO), laid stress on recycling garbage and not burning it. She turned waste into wealth by building shelters our of garbage in the remote areas of Karachi for those who could not afford their own. The materials she used included cardboard, paper, plastic bags, glass and metal. Her idea of recycling waste material not only helped people but saved the environment.

We need to contribute to saving the environment as well as by recycling at an individual level. There are a couple of ways you can get started. First, start collecting the newspapers you get at home. Once you have collected a big pile, hand them over to the local recyclers in your area. You can also unsubscribe to newspapers if you are not a regular newspaper reader. Both ways, you will be saving trees.

Using recycled paper is another way to save trees. Just keep a separate file at home where you stock all those papers that might have been misprinted or are of no use to you and use them whenever needed.

At the School of Media and Mass Communication (SMC), recycled paper is kept next to the printer and if ever needed, students are able to use recycled paper to print assignments and save pages. Any recyclable paper is submitted to the lab and can be reused. In case of recycled paper, if one side is printed, the blank side is used for printing.

If you are willing to put in some serious team effort, you can collect money from your neighbors and buy recycling bins or bags for the neighborhood. All the recyclable material should be put in these bins. You should make people aware that only recyclable material can be put into these bins, not rubbish. Also, contact your local recycling center and make them conscious of the effort you have put in so that they can help in putting it into use.

Also, it is better to use cloth bags when shopping instead of polythene bags because it is non-biodegradable, and does not decompose with time. It is a petroleum product and since it is light, it flies to the water with the wind. Also, if animals eat these by mistake, they may choke and die. You can reuse cloth bags for as long as you want.

At this time of the year, it is also a good idea to indulge in some spring cleaning and organize your course books and files to see if any papers or files can be reused instead of buying new ones. Try recycling as many things as you can, and save space, time, and money along with the environment. 

Originally published in The BNU Gazette, Issue no. 24