Wednesday 26 September 2012

WMW - Zero Waste Scotland-Businesses Landfilling Too Many Recyclable


As an organization, we generally work with the public however the private sector must never be forgotten.  As individuals, we often forget ourselves when in the workplace.  I have often seen people, who when at home strive to minimize waste, produce excessive amounts of it in the workplace.  Waste is waste, no matter where you are producing it, so we must always be aware of how much waste we do produce.

This past May, Zero Waste Scotland published a report analysing commercial waste in Scotland, by inspecting mixed waste being sent to landfills.  Retail, education, and health and social work produce over 50% of Scotland's total mixed commercial waste according to Zero Waste Scotland, over half of which could potentially be recycled.  Mixed waste consisted primarily of food, paper, and card waste in all sectors; however other recyclables also showed up in lower quantities.

Regulations passed by the Scottish Parliament require all businesses in Scotland separate paper and card, plastic, metal, and glass for recycling by 2014.  On top of that, those businesses producing over 50kg of food waste per week will be obliged to also separate this by January 2014, with businesses producing between 5kg and 50kg per week following suit by 2016.  According to the report, collections must be available from the council or commercial waste contractor for recycling to be possible.  It must be also noted, that opportunities do in fact exist, encouraging people to increase their use of recycling facilities.

In Ghana, recycling is minimal, though I have found company websites in the past, so it exists.  Now, it is not easy to have this kind of institution where funds are limited, however we have seen in past posts that there is a possibility to recycle from home, even if not in the form of a massive industrial venture.  Possibly my favourite quote in the article is that "it is clear that new waste regulations could boost our economy by getting valuable materials out of landfill and into productive uses."  Regulations may not yet exist in Ghana, but why should that stop us from putting those materials we would otherwise send to the landfills to good use?  Such initiatives as Trashy Bags (I know, I keep mentionning them, but they do great work) or UniquEco in Kenya both take waste and turn it into something people will use, so we know that it can be done!

Tom Udall once said:
It's a national concern, I mean how we dispose of nuclear waste in a safe way, how we deal with this incredible amount of nuclear waste we have created over the years.

Tuesday 18 September 2012

DO - Use Africa’s Resources for Sustainable Economic Growth


This week’s post is not directly about waste, however there is a link.  I am writing about an article found in Liberia’s Daily Observer, entitled “Use Africa’sResources for Sustainable Economic Growth”.  It seems a few African countries met at the Summit for Sustainability inAfrica in Gaborone, Botswana at the end of May.  These ten countries adopted The Gaborone Declaration.  The Declaration seeks to improve and maintain sustainability, so as to allow human communities to continue to survive on the Earth, through biodiversity and ecosystem protection, lessening of environmental risks and scarcities.  This will contribute to the economic prosperity of future generations.  An additional goal of this declaration is to reinforce commitment to previous treaties, as natural resource extraction in Africa has been primarily focused on short-term economic gains.

Reasoning behind the declaration recognizes that because of the nature of natural resource exploitation, human well-being will be negatively affected if efforts are not made to reverse environmental degradation.  In Liberia’s case, natural resource extraction followed the urge to satisfy the economy, completely disregarding long-term environmental effects, leaving large craters throughout the landscape, much like other resource-rich African nations.

What is great about this declaration is that it does seek to reinforce previous commitments.  Since those same commitments were not met, however, I wonder how we can be sure this one will be met?  Particularly because of the fifty-seven countries on the continent, only ten attended this summit (or 18%).  Various reasons could have stopped these countries from attending, however the fact remains that they did not and by so doing (or not doing), the Declaration loses its strength.  Despite the small portion of nations adopting The Gaborone Declaration, there is a push for African countries make this vision a reality, exploiting resources sustainably, so as to last for the people.

How I would relate this to waste is the obvious of environment, but also that the goal to become sustainable is, for some, at the cost of increased personal consumption.  Many do not want to minimize their habits, instead preferring to increase their consumption with every day.  What we need to understand is that the more we consume, the less sustainably we live.  There is no way to increase our consumption, while still reducing our environmental footprint that I know of, though I would be interested in finding out how if any readers know of ways this can be done.  The reason I say this is that we really need to be self-aware when we make decisions and we need to stop making decisions blindly, however small the decision, and consuming is a decision.  Rather than finding ways to materialize our lives, maybe we should try thinking about whether consumption really does enhance our lives.  If it does, what are the costs of our consumption habits and are they really worth it.  This may seem like a tangent, but remember: our consumption habits directly affect resource extraction.

Guy Debord said this week’s quote:
Young people everywhere have been allowed to choose between love and a garbage disposal unit. Everywhere they have chosen the garbage disposal unit.

Sunday 9 September 2012

Education and WaPreG


This past week Allie started school.  That is why this post is so late and we do apologize for that.  I do, however, want to link this change in my routine to Waste Prevention Group.  If you look to the side, you will see that the WaPreG goal is to prevent further waste in Ghana.  The plan is to do this through religious bodies, schools and the general public.  By working through these means, how do we prevent waste?  What we need to do is educate.  Now, education is not enough if the population does not want change, however many have expressed an interest in fixing this problem.  If you pay attention in Ghana, you can even catch people scolding others for contributing to this same problem.  That means people want to change and they know how.  As a group, WaPreG concentrates on why and how to prevent waste.  By concentrating on these two aspects, prevention will happen on its own.

Now, education is most obviously found in schools, which is one reason we did choose schools.  Those attending schools have great ideas, but may not realize how much power they have to effect change.  They learn something and believe in it, bring it home to their peers – friends, family, others in their communities – those peers who also believe in it make the change, bringing it to their own peers and it spreads.  What we must keep in mind, however, is that even if we eventually reach out to every school in Ghana, there is a large portion of the school-age population not attending school for various reasons and an even larger portion no longer attends school.  Because of that, we realized that a great place to go that will reach the large majority of the Ghanaian population, both school-age and beyond, is religious bodies.  Religion is very important to a great majority of Ghanaians.  Many religious leaders feel that we must not abuse the earth given to us by the creator.  Despite these two great institutions, we must recall that there are still portions of the population we have not yet reached, so we also work with the general public to be sure to reach as many people as possible.

Now when we hear the word “education”, we think of formal institutions with books and exams and paid teachers.  The kind of education related to WaPreG is about communal learning.  The expression “preaching to the choir” comes to mind, but in a good way.  Sometimes, to start the change, you need to bring together like-minded people to share their knowledge, so they can spread the word and that is part of the goal of WaPreG.  We will work with people who believe the problem can be remedied.  We want everyone to bring their knowledge and ideas to the table, so everyone can be on the same page.  We want to come up with ideas as a group.  WaPreG is not about WaPreG members telling non-members what to do.  Instead, the aim is to bring everyone together to come up with a solution that everyone will be pleased with and that will have a positive effect on the majority.  Sure, having started WaPreG, Alfred and Allie have many ideas, but we are only two people.  Ghana’s last census estimated a population of 24,7 million, or 103,4 people per square kilometer (dense compared to Canada’s 3,5 people per square kilometer, yet sparse compared to India’s 368,1).  We have faith that the 24,7 million in Ghana have plenty of ideas, if only they are given the chance to share these ideas.

Quote of the week, by Imelda Marcos:
People say I'm extravagant because I want to be surrounded by beauty. But tell me, who wants to be surrounded by garbage?