The Day and All That's In It
Here I am typing away on a sunny Wednesday afternoon. It is 1pm. I crawled out of bed at 835am but I am still chirpy. This is amazing.
Must be the cup of chai latte I just had. As I am currently taking driving lessons I have tried to cut back on my chai latte intake. A cup a week totals up to a significant amount of dosh. I must say I have been quite successful, this possibly being my fourth or fifth cup this year? The spiced brew from Mr Tulk [a cafe situated in the State Library and which is cleverly marketed as the book-loving individual's choice of hangout, even so shameless as to use a certain prominent forefather of Melbourne's history for its name] is average. But boasts these paper cups covered with the cafe's signature design. It is a mixture of geometry, bold black marker scribblings and patches of cute graffiti on a white background. I must admit what tempted me to purchase a drink from Tulks was the knowledge that they've cute cups and I can be seen toting one of them. So much for consumerism and vanity.
There is no end to the irony then when I started thinking about recycling my waste as I shuffled home with my brew. And to top it all off, as I collected my mail for the day, the monthly newsletter had a section on the facts of recycling. Here are a couple:
- On Glass: Every month we throw out enough glass bottles and jars to fill up a giant skyscraper. A modern glass bottle will take 4000 years or more to decompose and even longer if it is in the landfill.
- On Paper/Cardboard: To produce each week's Sunday newspapers, 500000 tress have to be cut down. If all our newspapers were recycled we can save about 25 million trees a year.
Hmmm, some food for thought. Some say that our generation is becoming increasingly aware of the damages we are doing to the environment - we are more concerned about social justice, environmental welfare and on the role we can play in looking after our world. Yet on the other hand reality provides its share of checks and balances and it becomes easy to either dismiss projects or any effort on our part as do-good-and-relieve-guilt endeavours, or worse still, we are numbed by facts, figures and initiatives.
Well, a portion of us have heard about Al Gore in An Inconvenient Truth and a few more on what he and a whole large community of scientists, engineers, social scientists, scholars etc. are doing to increase awareness of our destructive actions on the environment. It is all fine and dandy. But let us say that whether these guys are motivated by occupation, passion or inspiring leadership, we can also distance ourselves by saying that all this is not for us. That we do not see why our lifestyle preferences have to change because of statistics and warnings from smart guys who may live continents away from us. Research is research and daily life is daily life?
This sets me thinking. Given that there are a number of reasons for which we remain indifferent to/ignorant of this whole recycling affair: is it REALLY that HARD to recycle? Facts and figures can encourage or numb us to reality. Having said that, what about recycling takes so much wrecking of brains? Does it require us to fork out more money, consume copious amounts of our time, or strain our backs trying to lift heavy weights?
Well no, really. It can be as easy as placing a separate bin next to the bin where we throw food, wet matter or sticky icky items. And where we once threw paper, cardboard, glass, metal or plastic items we can direct it toward the other bin. I also had other ideas which I thought I'd throw in for good measure:
- Use energy-saving light bulbs, afterall they last longer and certainly more than make up for their initial higher cost. In addition they consume less energy.
- Sleep earlier. A revelation came one day when I switched off the lights in my apartment and looked across the road to the mammoth 44-storey block of apartments to see that 1/2 of the rooms' lights were switched on. Around Melbourne too there are shops who keep their window displays lit up throughout the night - what for? Think about the incremental savings you can make if you switch off the lights (or purchase energy-saving alternatives). Plus you contribute to a healthier environment at no severe costs to you. [though I was wondering if shops/offices/companies kept their lights on for security purposes. This says much about the trust we have in people living around us]
- Encourage Coles, Safeway or any supermarket to use paper bags instead or plastic ones. I think it is significantly better than using those 'environment' bags made of thick plastic-cloth material which may just about be harder to decompose and recycle than normal plastic bags. One question though: if we all use paper bags how do we contain wet waste matter like food scraps?
- Use tiffin containers. They were so popular long ago in Singapore and other parts of Asia. They are these awesome, long-lasting metal tins with a handle and two or three parts stacked one on top of the other. This way you can store, for example, rice in one part, vegetable in another, and meat in the last. My parents still use these once in a while instead of asking for takeaway meals to be packed in plastic boxes or waxed paper.
It struck me that we can ask for coffee or hot brews from the cafe to be poured into our own mugs wherever possible instead of using the usual paper cups with plastic lids. This way you can also be certain that you have not taken the wrong order especially during peak times when everyone is waiting for their cuppa.
Well these are my contributions to newfangled ideas on how to recycle. I reckon it is really not all that tedious and cumbersome as we (and I) tend to think it is. Of course what makes recycling a joy to participate in is when we realise the legacy you leave behind is not merely egged on by head knowledge, but a desire from the heart. =)
Must be the cup of chai latte I just had. As I am currently taking driving lessons I have tried to cut back on my chai latte intake. A cup a week totals up to a significant amount of dosh. I must say I have been quite successful, this possibly being my fourth or fifth cup this year? The spiced brew from Mr Tulk [a cafe situated in the State Library and which is cleverly marketed as the book-loving individual's choice of hangout, even so shameless as to use a certain prominent forefather of Melbourne's history for its name] is average. But boasts these paper cups covered with the cafe's signature design. It is a mixture of geometry, bold black marker scribblings and patches of cute graffiti on a white background. I must admit what tempted me to purchase a drink from Tulks was the knowledge that they've cute cups and I can be seen toting one of them. So much for consumerism and vanity.
There is no end to the irony then when I started thinking about recycling my waste as I shuffled home with my brew. And to top it all off, as I collected my mail for the day, the monthly newsletter had a section on the facts of recycling. Here are a couple:
- On Glass: Every month we throw out enough glass bottles and jars to fill up a giant skyscraper. A modern glass bottle will take 4000 years or more to decompose and even longer if it is in the landfill.
- On Paper/Cardboard: To produce each week's Sunday newspapers, 500000 tress have to be cut down. If all our newspapers were recycled we can save about 25 million trees a year.
Hmmm, some food for thought. Some say that our generation is becoming increasingly aware of the damages we are doing to the environment - we are more concerned about social justice, environmental welfare and on the role we can play in looking after our world. Yet on the other hand reality provides its share of checks and balances and it becomes easy to either dismiss projects or any effort on our part as do-good-and-relieve-guilt endeavours, or worse still, we are numbed by facts, figures and initiatives.
Well, a portion of us have heard about Al Gore in An Inconvenient Truth and a few more on what he and a whole large community of scientists, engineers, social scientists, scholars etc. are doing to increase awareness of our destructive actions on the environment. It is all fine and dandy. But let us say that whether these guys are motivated by occupation, passion or inspiring leadership, we can also distance ourselves by saying that all this is not for us. That we do not see why our lifestyle preferences have to change because of statistics and warnings from smart guys who may live continents away from us. Research is research and daily life is daily life?
This sets me thinking. Given that there are a number of reasons for which we remain indifferent to/ignorant of this whole recycling affair: is it REALLY that HARD to recycle? Facts and figures can encourage or numb us to reality. Having said that, what about recycling takes so much wrecking of brains? Does it require us to fork out more money, consume copious amounts of our time, or strain our backs trying to lift heavy weights?
Well no, really. It can be as easy as placing a separate bin next to the bin where we throw food, wet matter or sticky icky items. And where we once threw paper, cardboard, glass, metal or plastic items we can direct it toward the other bin. I also had other ideas which I thought I'd throw in for good measure:
- Use energy-saving light bulbs, afterall they last longer and certainly more than make up for their initial higher cost. In addition they consume less energy.
- Sleep earlier. A revelation came one day when I switched off the lights in my apartment and looked across the road to the mammoth 44-storey block of apartments to see that 1/2 of the rooms' lights were switched on. Around Melbourne too there are shops who keep their window displays lit up throughout the night - what for? Think about the incremental savings you can make if you switch off the lights (or purchase energy-saving alternatives). Plus you contribute to a healthier environment at no severe costs to you. [though I was wondering if shops/offices/companies kept their lights on for security purposes. This says much about the trust we have in people living around us]
- Encourage Coles, Safeway or any supermarket to use paper bags instead or plastic ones. I think it is significantly better than using those 'environment' bags made of thick plastic-cloth material which may just about be harder to decompose and recycle than normal plastic bags. One question though: if we all use paper bags how do we contain wet waste matter like food scraps?
- Use tiffin containers. They were so popular long ago in Singapore and other parts of Asia. They are these awesome, long-lasting metal tins with a handle and two or three parts stacked one on top of the other. This way you can store, for example, rice in one part, vegetable in another, and meat in the last. My parents still use these once in a while instead of asking for takeaway meals to be packed in plastic boxes or waxed paper.
It struck me that we can ask for coffee or hot brews from the cafe to be poured into our own mugs wherever possible instead of using the usual paper cups with plastic lids. This way you can also be certain that you have not taken the wrong order especially during peak times when everyone is waiting for their cuppa.
Well these are my contributions to newfangled ideas on how to recycle. I reckon it is really not all that tedious and cumbersome as we (and I) tend to think it is. Of course what makes recycling a joy to participate in is when we realise the legacy you leave behind is not merely egged on by head knowledge, but a desire from the heart. =)
