A city is all about give and take. What you give around comes around. It is all about little things which when combined together add up to its overall image. Best representation exists in its public spaces. Aim of sustainable environment in general should be a healthy environment for an individual. A healthy environment has clean space and clean air therefore healthy for humans and other creatures.
On social level, when a place has a healthy environment, it is appealing to eyes and soul. It also provides opportunity for positive talk among individuals and cultivates healthy habits as well. When social environment is healthy inspiring and motivating, it improves health of an individual. And this ultimately have huge positive impact on the economy. As economy works well when there is positive image and functioning of a city. When economic pressures are less, and people know their investment in city is going for good purpose and maintenance, it takes burden off them, and they grow well and healthily.
On the contrary, exposed garbage in public spaces spoils the image of a city. And it not only spoils image, but also when a fly carries germs from trash to food items and individuals, spoils health as well. Thus, exposed garbage is foundation of pollution. It depicts how less one cares about others health and city’s environment overall.
According to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Pakistan generates around 20 million tons of solid waste annually, and this figure grows by 2.4% each year. In the absence of adequate garbage collection and waste management infrastructure, most of this garbage is incinerated or left to rot in dumps, often in the middle of the cities. Even when municipal waste is properly collected and disposed of by concerned authorities, it usually ends up in landfill sites which are environmentally hazardous, contaminates land and water, and releases harmful greenhouse gases.
Recycling is among most effective means through which solid waste can be reduced and natural resources can be conserved by reusing materials and putting them back into productive use. But, unsegregated waste, with organic and inorganic materials tossed in together, minimizes the effective recycling process. This means that recyclable materials such as paper, plastic and metals become contaminated with bacteria ultimately reducing air quality and usefulness.
“If the households in Pakistan segregate waste at the basic level, with separate bins for organic and inorganic waste, we could reduce the amount of garbage that ends up in landfill sites” says Syed Bilal Termezi, HBD at Green Earth Recycling.
“Many societies across the world separate household waste into different streams such as paper, glass, metal and organic or green waste. In some places, citizens segregate waste into as many as seven types. Such societies also have strong social sanctions against mixing waste” says Syed Ayub Qutub, Executive Director of Pakistan Institute for Environment Development Action Research (PIEDAR)
Environmentalists are repeatedly requesting citizens to realize that they are contributors and therefore they should responsibly reduce their trash at source: As authorities struggle to do their job, citizens also need to play their part in cleaning the city. And as we work towards minimizing, reducing, recycling and extending the life cycle of products, it is essential to introduce the concept of ‘clean waste’. Clean waste is the waste segregated at the source so it can be fully reused as opposed to mixed waste (mixed waste contains bacteria as residue and uses a considerable amount of energy and resources to segregate later).
But how can we play our role as citizens in a productive way? How would we know that our participation has an impact on sustainability of our country? Whom can we contact to volunteer as a responsible citizen for improving the quality of our environment?
Solid Waste Management Program by Aabroo Educational Welfare Organization in Pakistan was launched on February 01, 2007 as a sustainable initiative with a dual mission of raising funds for their welfare schools in order to educate homeless and destitute children for free and to create awareness among public particularly housewives and students about reduce, reuse, recycle for environmental protection. Aabroo has introduced the concept of in-house segregation of Biodegradable and dry recyclable domestic waste and its door to door collection from the households.
Aabroo provides polypropylene bags to the donor that is kept in the house/ office for one week. The donor secures in this bag, any recyclable material produced in their households like emptied PET bottles, old newspapers old books, used notebooks, cartons, various packaging, used clothes, uniforms, shoes and school shoes, school bags etc. This bag is collected and replaced with a new empty bag by the Aabroo solid waste collection staff on weekly basis.
This waste is transported to a warehouse to be manually segregated into separate items for selling to recyclers. Presently Aabroo collects solid waste from nearly 7000 households and institutions on weekly basis and approximately 28000 donors per month. This activity generates funds to support one-third of the present monthly expenditure of Aabroo. We hope the in a few years this initiative is going to fully support Aabroo’s funding requirements.
Aabroo Solid Waste Management Warehouse at Atta Bukhsh Road, Lahore.
When you start playing your part people will follow you. When you start taking responsibility every good thing follows. Remember it’s a natural human instinct to follow actions of those around them. Therefore, stop irresponsibly throwing garbage outside yourself. Volunteer and join this Aabro program and sort your trash and donate for a good purpose. Change starts with ‘I’. So be the change you want to see in the world. Bring the positive change in the world. We rely on each other in terms of well-being and longevity.
So, decide today whether to be a part of this campaign (for your own good) or not. Then contact Aabro Organization and register your name and address and be the part of team and help them educate and feed children and make their future better. And then comes the hardest yet most satisfying part, clean your home. Purge through your closet; get rid of unwanted clothes, shoes or accessories and anything (recyclable or reusable) from your home. Keep collecting in the bags provided by them and get rid of unwanted stuff from your home every week. It will be Easy as you start doing it. Help us turn our trash into treasure!
A video clip from our Fun With Trash Workshop at Aabro Welfare School with these energetic little girls.
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