Story for Not to waste a waste | waste is not waste until you assume it “Every artist seeks for a best in everything.”
Wondering why I have started with this line?
Well, it’s a real time experience of mine which depicts the same. One of my friend who is really great painter and craft artist was on the way to make a masterpiece. She wanted it to be unique and appealing.All the way I was observing her making this painting from 5 hours mutely. A room scattered with scrambled papers lying all around. One canvas placed on stand, holding some colours on it but I was having no clue that what ultimately it is going to look like. She was playing with those different brushes frivolously. She was spreading colours and then rubbing them out with some papers to give abstract feel. Sometimes she was staring at the vibrant colours on canvas and sometimes to the papers on floor. In between, grabbing a sip of hot coffee and enjoying its aroma emerging from its blur steam. Another second she was looking happy like a child whose father just returned from long day trip to home and was moving brushes to the canvas wondrously.
It’s been a quiet long time, when I figured out that the painting is about a kid staring at the dark, full of stars night sky. Looking at the canvas I really felt like to be drifted in painting and experiencing that dark yet starry night amidst a sunny day. The painting was completed in my terms and I started rearranging the room by removing scrap things. I put all useless papers into garbage bag to make some space to sit and settle down.
Meanwhile, my friend was still staring at the paintings without blinking. I asked her the reason and she said “This painting looks incomplete to me.”
I was clueless and not knowing what to suggest her. She again picked up a brush and was thinking what will make it perfect. Then she again step back and looked down for the papers which I threw into the bin thinking that it’s of no use. She asked me for one silver coloured glittery paper and I answered honestly that it is of no use and I made it to its place which is Garbage.Restless she moved out of that room and started searching for that silver paper in garbage.
For a while, I thought she is running crazy and how this scrap will make her picture complete but later she moved on to the canvas with holding silver paper into her hand. She again cut that paper into pieces and sticks it on canvas where she painted stars. Now those silver paper stars were gleaming differently on that dark colored canvas sky. Indeed, that picture was looking more realistic and more commanding than earlier.And then my Painter friend put all that scrap from garbage into her bags to utilize it again reassuring me that it waste is not waste until you assume it.
So this is just an artistic angle to make anyone believe that waste is self-declared anatomy.
Let’s get started with some practical stuff now.
What is Waste?
The terminology of “waste” can vary from person to person giving breakthrough notions from how it can be vulnerable to safe. But let’s take a global terminology defining the waste. Waste is usually a last thing after utilization of product and supposed to be thrown without giving a much thought. This “without thought” throwing for a single stuff is contributing in making huge heaps of wastes. These heaps will again form debris and the end result to call out this would be appended with adjectives like unwanted, useless, damaged and non-usable.When we use something extravagantly and after certain duration we declare it as worthless is the one we consider as waste. Sometimes, this declaration of worthless or useless we make on various factor like time frame, performance or even an appearance of it.
We are living in an era, where technology has made a tremendous advancement. Comfort and luxury are being considered as fourth need to home, food and shelter.
And while achieving this fourth need we unknowingly have made our mind believe that if something is broken, throw it away. Something is damaged, throw it away. Something is faded in colour, throw it away. Something got older and running from ages, throw it away. Something at your home or office taking extra space and can be replaced by a smaller one then throw the old stuff away. And we have been made to believe that it won’t affect our day to day lives.For that matter, we have set up with a mentality that moving waste from our life is moving towards betterment. This has been running from generation to generation and no one is even having a second thought while declaring something as waste.
From home, offices, industries, roads and left over lands are surely having a corner of waste. Hence, in every possible activity of our life we are encountering garbage and waste all over which is assassinating our life in several ways.
But this rusted waste coin also has one brighter, shiny side to prove.
Facts about Waste
The way I have started this article about my painter friend who actually used a scrap to beautify her painting would have made a convincing point that ‘Waste is not a waste’. There are many theories proving it.
In nature, everything comes with a purpose and stay with a purpose. The concept of waste doesn’t even exist because it can be tackled by many wise ways. From rotten eggs to fallen leaves or from faeces to residues of electronic gadgets nothing is seen as useless. Nature accepts everything which we are producing and consuming. It is us who are making a mess out of it. We are making impulsive decisions while moving some stuff to trash. It’s easy for us to move useless (in our terms) stuff from our eyesight by making it a trash and throwing it further. Like, we buy one water bottle and throw it in bin for reduction of garbage from our eyesight. However, it is not making any sense for reduction of garbage. We have developed the unwelcoming habits for transition of usable stuff to waste. We are not seeing that waste can be a potential resource to many other useful things. Landfill overflowing with waste can be turned into productive materials and trash of non-decomposition things can be reused.
Let’s start it from very beginning when troglodyte (folks living in caves) used to do hunting for their food and lived in nature’s arm. These people were never come up with any residues which turn as wastage to environment. As human being started evolving with time, he started cultivating raw nature goods into useful handy tools and utilities. But still wastage was not a problem as all materials made its beginning from nature and ended in nature. Later human being started developing his intelligence and started inventing many wonderful ideas. It was been a period when human’s life turned for ease and comfort and this comfort has indulge into creation of such things which turned out be useless after duration. After many decades, some of these revolutionary inventions get caught into trap of production for Eco-unfriendly products. It started capturing our life vastly and within short period of time we started believing that “World is not the same without it”. This verse has started proving reversely.
Indeed, it is not the same without some inventions but this has been arisen as greatest threat to mankind. This most comfortable and cheaper invention which is “plastic” has started taking over the garbage like evil.
The whole paragraph I have drafted just to make a statement true that “It is we who are creating this mess and waste can be utilized further for not turning into waste.”
There are many beautiful ways where we can make a wise decision about it and avoid it from being called as waste. Every possible scrap has its own way to mould into useful material and that’s why it should not be called as waste. So, the things which we are calling out as waste is not the waste until we waste it. There are numerous examples and implications where scrap and garbage have been considered as prominent source for miraculous production.
Sources of Waste
As from the beginning of this article, its being illustrated that human being is responsible for production of waste. For some instance we can say that human being is the major impacting source for creation of waste. Let’s further classify it to put into categories that how human is a culprit to for making a waste.
Human society produces some unwanted and discarded materials according to their utilization. It starts from individuals, families, societies, colleges, hospitals, industries and all public places. Let’s take a closer look to all of these sources.
Individual/Families/Societies- A Domestic waste:
As a person from the birth we have been taught to keep ourselves and surroundings clean and tidy. The fundamental concept behind that is to eliminate the waste. But it’s never been taken us for a long term vision that it is not the right way to clean our society. It’s easy for a child to make habitual with the fact that chocolate wrapper is a garbage and has to throw in a garbage bag. However, the child is never been taught with the innovative techniques to transform the so called useless stuff into usable one. As a result, wherever we are heading the moment we leave our home we seem to be greeted with an abundance of trash. This negligible contribution from every individual and then collectively as family is rendering to form a domestic waste.
Right from the water bottle, kitchen waste, paper, plastic, clothes, metal, organic matter discarded as a scrap are sources from individuals to domestic waste.
This is one of major impacting source to the formation of waste.
Industrial Waste:
With the evolution we have moved to urbanization and modernization. We have achieved commendable heights in every possible arena including science, space, chemicals and many more.
This has led human to believe that spreading wings is the ultimate aim we have. But while making these achievements we are being logged into hazardous impact.
Almost all types of industries process raw materials to produce finished consumable goods. In this process any leftover material, which is of no use, is called industrial waste.
These wastes includes acids, oils, synthetic materials, fiber, paper scraps, cement, sand, bricks, stones, woods, etc.
Agriculture Waste
Agriculture is the greener part of the earth which cultivates plants and seeds to feed villages and cities. The 20th Century saw massive changes in agricultural practice, particularly in agricultural chemistry.Agricultural chemistry includes the application of chemical fertilizer, chemical insecticides, and chemical fungicides, soil makeup, analysis of agricultural products, and nutritional needs of farm animals. And again excess use of these fertilizers and pesticide have made it’s entry to a category of agricultural waste. Similar to other wastes, these have been nudged into harmful waste. The natural way of farming has been demolished and it’s taken over by waste creation with farming as well.
As technology continues to drive the pace of progress, the field of biomedical started emerging like a pioneer. It has been proven as a prominent boon to society. Its breakthrough results awed everyone and it made us believe that we have landed into safer zone now.
But as the advancement goes on, human being started experiencing cons of it in the form of bio-medical wastes. These wastes generates in hospitals, pathological laboratories, clinics. This includes syringes, needles, blades, scalpels, empty plastic bottles, polythene bags, gloves, tubes, expired medicines, pathological wastes (blood, tissues, body parts, and body fluids), waste from surgery and autopsy.
Electronic wastes:
This decade is declared as digital decades as the technology has reached to its highest revolutionary phase. From a kid to old people, everyone is being fascinated with electronic gadgets. We cannot imagine our day without a mobile, a tablet or any other electronic gadgets. These electronic Medias have conquered our day to day life like an immediate need. However, the urge of everyone to be upgraded with it has made to replace or throw the older piece of it. Soon we are making a deal to call it out as older or obsolete or outdated.
As a result, obsolete electronic devices are rapidly filling the landfills of the globe rigorously. These materials might be trace elements, damaged and non-working devices or broken gadgets.
Improper disposal of electronic devices have made a significant threat to a human life.
Waste Management
We are living in ages, which is said to be throwaway society. We clean our hands with paper napkins; we drink our coffee and tea in paper cups and flip it to the trash after single use. We throw our clothes in a heap of garbage considering it out of trend. We have switched from CRT TVs to wall mounting LED’s; personal computers to handy laptops and changed our smartphones with upgraded versions. We prefer to be updated with the time and technology and this has led to create tremendous waste in every form.
Waste is created with several resources and lack of clearance of it is causing the streets, grounds and surrounding to choke with filth. This percentage of waste across the globe in increasing rapidly and has to be regulated and monitored to improve the health and well being of urban and rural areas.
Ignoring this hazardous evil of waste can make our life more worse than a hell. So, it’s important to take regulatory actions before it takes over to the air we breathe, water we drink and land we live on.
Waste management can start from every home and from every family. Let’s simplify it by three simple ways to foster the waste management concept.
Reduce, Reuse and Recycle: This 3R will improve our lifestyle and will make a safer future for next generations as well. Then why not to shake hand with this all friendly ways.
Reduce:
As our day starts, we are using some of stuff like flowing water in our day to day life. We are bound to one blind schedule which is not allowing us to think much on a part of utilization of some inventories that can be reduce over the time. Here are few examples for such:
Water bottles:
Plastic drinking water bottles are roaring more in the trash to make a very bad waste material affecting environmental hygiene. A single step of carrying water bottle rather than using it and throwing it away directly to the trash will significantly result in reduction of waste.
Paper Napkins:
Although this is disposable and can decompose in earth’s lap, why to use it on daily basis where we can replace it with an efficient way. This can be replaced with cloth napkins and I guess it’s pretty simple and cheaper way to replace and use it.
Shopping Bags:
Again one of an abundant source for plastic waste which is not degradable and decomposable. Why to bring your shopped stuff in plastic carry bags when you can make a fair deal to bring it home with your owned fancy cloth bags and even can save money.
Utensils and Dishes:
We do not think twice at work when we pick our coffee in paper cups and throw it to dustbin without a thought. Like a way we are using washable utensils at home, should we not imply the same at work and everywhere?
Reuse:
The day we start thinking about reusing our household trash by any possible way would make remarkable milestone in reduction of waste. These can include many household items which in our terms are on the verge of becoming a waste. This can have few on your list categorized as decomposable, non –degradable, outdated.
The terminology we used for “Reduce” can also help here and we can have a better advantage of it in reducing a waste.
We keep on cleaning our houses on daily or weekly basis but as soon as we find something extra or unusable to a current situation, we just handover it to a trash. Let’s take a small step to start reusing all possible stuff at our home only. These domestic trashes have better place to look more adorable than garbage. Here are some examples:
Vegetables:
Rather than throwing out vegetables or fruit trimmings or peels to garbage, turn it into a nutritious supplement for your household garden only. This can have deceased plants, cores and scarps, shell from eggs, nuts, general refrigerator spoilage, grains which are an everyday occurrence in most household.
Imagine, the beautiful garden blooming at your home with pocket friendly and non-wasted compost fertilizers.
Toys, Clothes and Shoes:
Few of us would have a habit to change a whole wardrobe over a season, or change shoes, foot wares with weather. Or some of us might prefer to run with a trend and replace old clothes with new. But somewhere in some corner of the world a person might be in great need of these clothes or shoes.
So look for some charity and donate it to the needy. Might be this would give us eternal happiness for helping somebody and of course we have contributed to a part of waste management.
Outdated electronics:
As technology rapidly evolves, we face the challenge of outdated electronics such as home appliances, computers, television, and cell phones becoming household wastes. Before you dispose of your old electronics, consider donating them to a local school, community centre, library or charity. What may be out of date to you could be a useful tool for another.
People can even run their imagination free to creative reuse of it. (You can find one of example for it in examples part)
For other damaged or unusable devices you can dispose it to recycle centre and can make small money out of it.
Recycle:
Among these 3 R’s are tending towards green lifestyle, recycle is the one that is getting more attention. Whenever reduce and reuse is out of scope and households are still catching their way to trash, we can make it to reuse again by transforming it. Creative recycling is good for environment and saves money. Most of new products can be manufactured from raw material extracted from recycled one.
Imagine the oldest stuff of our household altered into beautiful creation. In many ways it is actually saving its way to be in a waste stuff. Here are some examples which can be recycled.
Furniture
Who doesn’t like to live in a decorative way? After all eye catching things and comfort are also the important part of our life and we are occupied with furniture to incorporate this comfort. But as time passes, new designs and new décor made us replace the old one. Still if you have an old, scratched table or a chair with a worn out cover, don’t give up on it. It can be recycled.
You can recycle the material of the furniture itself. If it’s made of wood, metal or some other recyclable material, you can take it straight to your nearest large recycling bin or community recycling facility.
It might help you to fragment a large furniture part into smaller useful one. Like a broken chair or table can be moulded into smaller container boxes.
Plastic:
Almost everything of our life has been covered with plastic material all over. Whether its plastic bags to carry home groceries, plastic bottles for soft drink or even kid’s toys, everything is just made up of plastic. While reusing and reducing a use of it we can again make a wise decision to recycle it to use once again. Some types of plastics can be re-melted and re-moulded into new products.
Before you decide to get rid of any plastic product, please think on reuse or recycling of it. There’s ton of plastic filled in landscape which is hazardous if left with that state only. The only way this plastic can be removed from these areas is recycling it.
Papers and cardboards:
Often we are using papers for every possible use in our day to day life. Wiping our nose with paper tissues to one time shot read of newspaper and then threw it away from our eyesight.
Although papers and cardboards are decomposable part of waste, papers makes up about one-third of municipal waste stream. That’s a whole lot of paper, and since we know that recycling all that paper conserves resources, saves energy, and doesn’t clog up the landfills, there’s no reason not to do it.Eventually, you will be able to eliminate some household waste and create something unique and handmade at the same time.
Examples
As we were talking about three R’s in earlier part of this article, let’s just take a small overview towards such amazing examples which have already set a benchmark in waste management process.
Some of them are baby steps towards reducing waste and some ideas are best manifestation of reuse of materials which were on the way to trash. Looking at these examples would definitely affiliate the interest to move towards waste management by practicing these 3 R’s. Once you become comfortable, you will find out the difference by yourself and you will constantly rediscover the ways to reuse, reduce and recycle the waste.
Below are simple yet effective ideas for managing and regulating waste.
Turn your CRT computer monitor into Fish Pond
This might sounds crazy but at least give it a try. All the way, we are mostly talking about electronic waste and how rapidly we are replacing the old gadgets into new. Is there any way we can make a use of it? So the answer is here:
Doesn’t it look beautiful, so let’s start thinking creatively for every waste before dispose.
Piano as bookshelf:
Do you have a piano which is just dumped in the corner of your house and doesn’t create any harmony anymore?
Well, you do not need to consider it as waste. We can make a best use of it by doing minor changes it. Here is the one:
Plants in coconut shell:
This initiative is recently in trend and won hearts of millions as it is setting one of best example to move towards green lifestyle and no wastage at all.
Are you done with drinking water from a coconut, then do not throw it, make it as a pot to grow green vegetables for your home and it will make your place a better livelihood.
Tyre Chairs and Plastic bottle boat
When we are worried about non- degradable and non-decomposable items to dispose, we can have an inspiration from these two examples.
Rubber tyre, which is considered as most hazardous waste, can be reused like a pro to make a comfortable sitting in your garden or at home. This is money saving plus environment saving idea.
As plastic water bottles are living their traces as non-degradable material and making a huge fuss about how to reuse it and recycle it. Below is my favourite innovation, which is I guess turning out to be best internet sensation in waste management term.
Plants in tea cups and initiative for reuse of material
Trust me I have captured these images from office my office.
Everyone likes to surround by greenery and when it comes to your office desk, you could not make it happen to grow bigger plants within your immediate work area. But few innovative people are really found their way through it as well.
As a saying “When there is a will, there is a way.” One of my colleague have planted seeds in tea cups (which we actually throw into bin). Here is the image:
One fine another day, I also found a box in my office premises labelled with “Collection for Further Reuse” and it was overflowed the next day with many items like books, clothes, shoes, umbrellas, toys and so on.
I hope this initiative have definitely helped some of needy people to fulfil their needs and helped them to live a better life.
Night lamps from newspapers:
Every now and then you will definitely find many ideas to reuse newspapers for origami, gift wrapping, flower making, paper bags and this list goes on.
One of tempting idea is to create lamps from newspapers.
Conclusion:
As I said in the beginning that nothing is waste and it’s our responsibility to save our earth. We have to be cautious and extra active to make it happen.
Examples which I have given are only as a part of sample and to make us aware that waste is not waste until wasted it. So, let’s contribute in a campaign to implement 3 R’s to make our mother nature more beautiful and lively.
Anyone can participate in waste reduction practises and that will make us healthier and stronger with many waysIn this way I defined and told you the whole story ” Story for Not to waste a waste | waste is not waste until you assume it ” Please comment below and follow our website.
