After starting my Zero- Waste challenge, I realized that we Indians are pre-adjusted to zero-waste. Since childhood, we have been trained not to waste anything. For example, wasting food is almost a criminal activity in most Indian homes. “How dare you waste food? do you know how many people in this world are starving?” or “Why have you not switched off the lights after coming out of the room? There are kids studying under street lights and you are wasting it.” I am sure most of us have heard these dialogues from our parents during our growing up days. My mother used to show me images of Somalia whenever it appeared on Doordarshan, either during news or World this Week of Pranay Roy. I have a feeling she used to wait for those clipping to appear and show me to make me feel guilty. Then I used to feel irritated but today I feel grateful.
I hate to waste food and teach the same to my son. I am great at recycling leftover food into a new dish. In fact ten years back I started my blogging journey with a food blog where I used to post recipes of dishes prepared from leftover food. My mother never ever threw away any food or clothes and always recycled or donated them. I remember once she donated a beautiful silk saree to a cobbler whose wife was wearing a torn saree. The cobbler got emotional at this gesture and couldn’t control his tears. That moment is still etched in my mind. I also donate my clothes and use the torn and tattered ones for dusting, mopping and cleaning the house.
Now back to my zero-waste journey and my learnings. I evaluated the waste that goes out of my house and divided it into a few sections and took care of them one by one.
Kitchen Waste or Wet Waste:
Vegetable and Fruit peels: We are lucky to have a compost plant in our housing society so I am giving it to them to take care of.
Seeds: I am collecting the seeds from fruits and vegetables and washing them first, then they are dried and refrigerated. Planning to germinate them soon and either plant them in my housing society or on the highways. We travel a lot and I have seen barren lands on the National Highways where the germinated sapling can be planted. I will also gift them to friends and family. They might also become a return gift for my son’s birthday party.
Roots and stems: I live in Mumbai and therefore my house is small, nevertheless I planted roots and stems of few plants like coriander, mint, celery and spring onion on my tiny window. They are growing and am feeling like a proud mom.
Bones: We eat non-vegetarian food every day and therefore gather a lot of fish and chicken bones. I spoke to an Aunty in my building who has five cats and they are vegetarian so she was buying fish based food from outside. I spoke to her and she was delighted to feed her cat with leftover bones from my house. I clean them and give it to her.
Food scraps: This is what remains on the plate, it is a tiny quantity and it goes to the compost. Eggshells also go to the compost bin.
Dry Waste:
Newspapers: I often feel guilty about this but “old habits die hard”. Reading newspaper is a childhood habit and not easy to get rid of. However, we are now trying to shift to e-paper and will phase out the paper gradually. Nevertheless, the newspapers are sold to raddiwalas and then they go for recycling so that redeems me a bit.
Milk pouches: For one whole week, I struggled with milk pouches. The raddiwala refused to take it and I was lost about what to do with them. In Maharashtra, there is a buyback offer for milk pouches (on every pouch it is written that buyback price is 0.50) but the system is not in a proper place so nobody has a clue where to sell them. I made calls and wrote emails but to no avail. Then I came across Mission Green Mumbai, they are collecting milk pouches to plant saplings. They need 1lakh milk pouches. I contacted them and they asked me to leave the pouches at any nearby BMC office. Phew!!!
Plastic Bags: These are an unavoidable menace. Our consumerist lifestyle is such that everything comes in a plastic bag or container. The raddiwala bought the shampoo bottles, oil containers but refused the bags. The same situation as the milk pouches, there is a buyback policy but no implementation. I again started searching the net and came across Bag for Cause by Green Yatra. They collect almost anything. They prefer bulk order but also customize it. I am gathering my plastic bags and other stuff. I am also trying to encourage the other members of my society to donate to this NGO.
Exchange Your Raddi with Cloth Bag
In this campaign we are appealing housing societies, companies, corporates, schools, colleges to collect and donate their dry waste and E-waste to Bag for Cause. In return we will gift them both low cost (Bags for daily needs as grocery) and better quality designed clothes/canvas/cotton Tote /Jute bags with witty environmental quotes and messages that people can use for shopping, office, college and such other purpose.
Apart from waste segregation I also adopted a few new habits and replaced the old one.
- I stopped using plastic straws that came with coconut every day
- Started avoiding plastic carry bags as much as possible
- Stopped buying fruits and vegetables from supermarkets as there I have to use a plastic bag to weigh the stuff. Local vegetable vendors do not do that.
- Started organic gardening at home
That is my journey so far. Stay tuned to know more and I would appreciate if you use these tips and start your own zero-waste journey.
Trina Looks Back 
You are right, we are preconditioned to recycling. I separate my wastes into three parts, wet, dry and sanitary. My city (designated 3rd cleanest in the country) corporation insists every household does it. So all my plastic/paper goes separate from the peels and stuff. Newspaper goes to raddiwala. I have always taken my own bags for shopping since ages. Also here shopping malls have only paper bags for veg counters, no plastics. Corporation rules. Only trouble I have is with groceries coming in plastic pouches. Those go into my dry waste but still I want a better option.
Shoutout to World this week. One of my fav shows from childhood.
Great work with garden and your efforts too.
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In my city everything is in paper and nothing happening practically.
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Hmm…. That is sad!
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I use old newspapers to wrap around dustbins(instead of plastic garbage bags).
The seeds of mangoes (Alphonso and Badami) are planted into the soil around my housing society.( seeds should not be washed but wiped). 30 mango trees are in full bloom.
am planning to make my own compost with wet kitchen waste.
https://ideasolsi65.blogspot.com/2019/04/gumsgingiva-parts-of-body.html
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We can actually form a club or Facebook group where we can learn from each other and also inspire ourselves. What say?
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I am in for a group like this 🙂
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Yes.. lets form one
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Amazing balaka. You are an inspiration. Didn’t know about milk pouch scheme. The major problem comes when disposing plastics, and over time the plastic waste in a house becomes lots. Thanks, will check here too .
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There is a strong connection between environmental pollution and auto immune diseases.. this is need of the hour dear. Thanks for reading 😘😘
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Wow! B, I am totally impressed by all that you are doing towards reducing waste from your home.
I, too,use old clothes for mopping, dusting, etc. Wearable clothes are donated to the homeless near the traffic signals. I make sure those clothes aren’t torn or dirty. Old bedsheets etc also are given to them.
I use a cloth bag for buying veggies and fruits, and the local supermarket in my area use paper bags to weigh veggies, so that’s one less trouble. Now, I too need to think something about the milk pouches and the plastic bags which are used to pack food grains at those supermarkets.
The seeds from my kitchen waste are washed and given to my parrots to munch on, so they take care of it. 😛
I loved your idea of germinating the seeds and planting them on the highways.
Every drop counts, Balaka. You are doing such a good job! keep it up, and encourage as many as you can!
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The seeds in your home are well used😂😂
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😂
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Wonderful ideas and i recycle all my current wet waste. May be we should form a group to learn from each other
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I think I will create a page
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So incredible! I would love to be able to garden, and I’m sure you’re going to find it makes your zero waste journey much smoother. Its great that you have options for different ways to re-use and recycle!
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These are all wonderful ideas, Balaka! I do my bit, but the lengths you have gone to are truly inspirational.
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I am learning from others who have gone zero waste.. I still have a long way to go before I become truly inspirational.. nevertheless thanks a lot for this encouraging and supportive comment.
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This is an inspiring post Balaka. I had no idea Milk pouches have the provision of being bought back. We’ve been segregating our waste for ages and the wet waste goes into the society compost bins so I don’t feel guilty about that. Also I use cloth bags for shopping. The major problem is with grocery that comes in plastic bags as also biscuits and other snacks. Still clueless about those.
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Milk pouches are supposed to have a buyback policy. But trust me everything is only in paper and nobody has any idea how to go about it .. grocery plastics are turning into nightmare for me.
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This is too good. I would love to follow some of the tips
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😘😘😘😘
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Incredible! This is amazing and I am so proud of you. Great job. I also recycle clothes the most. I don;t use plastics for shopping and carry a cloth bag. I don’t live in a society so I don’t compost my waste but I need to do it for myself. Some great ideas there and very inspiring.
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Composting is a great idea and in Bengaluru there is already an organisation who can handhold you in your compost journey. You can start even in a small space. It doesn’t stink if you keep the carbon and nitrogen balance. I am literally looking forward to your compost 😘😘
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What’s that they say, when the student is ready the teacher appears! It seems that you were able to connect with many agencies once you committed to this initiative. Very inspiring.
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Yes. But everything is extremely unorganised..lot of things on paper but nothing in place. It is going to take patience and perseverance to get things done. Will keep updating my struggles and triumphs. Thanks for being so encouraging.
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Plastic bags can be “recycled” by responsible pet owners picking up their dog’s poop during walks. Or they can be used as trash can liners, trash bags in the car, and either emptied or disposed of (if full of wet or smelly waste).
Newspapers make great drop cloths for tabletop art projects. I’ve known of people to make gift wrap out of them. Or use them for packaging filler. How about papier mache? Or get a screen in a small frame, then blend your paper scraps, dryer lint, water, and other bits to recycle them into pretty papers? It’s really easy and you can get very creative. https://eekwi.org/cool/paper.htm
Our local grocery stores certainly don’t require plastic bags for weighing or checkout. In fact, they sell cheap but reusable bags at the counter for about $1 each. The trick is remembering to bring them, and to bring enough of them. Mine always seem to be storing other things at home. I must stop this habit!
Beware non-vegetarian scraps in the compost; it tends to attract bugs and creates nasty odors. It’s not really recommended. I do have a compost bin in the back yard; it’s a good thing to have.
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Your are absolutely right
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