SunCorp

Tired of just reading about all the environmental damage that a modern lifestyle causes and wish you could do something about it? Here are a few simple things that even ordinary people could do to get their act together. All you need is a little smart use of technology that’s already available.

Information technology (IT) and the environment have not exactly been comfortable bedfellows. While the IT sector claims to be doing more than its bit for keeping the planet green (the colour was very much the theme at CEBIT 2008), environmentalists claim that all the talk about eco-friendly computers and cellphones is nothing but public relations hogwash. Whatever be the truth of that debate, the fact nevertheless remains that using a dollop of IT prudently can indeed take a load off the planet. And no, we are not asking you to enrol in online campaigns or to start writing militant ecofriendly blogs. Just a few simple steps and before you know it, you could be doing more than your bit for the environment, with minimum disruption of your everyday life.

Saying ‘no’ to snail mail!
Email is considered the ‘killer app’ of the internet. And well, using it thoroughly can not only speed up communication considerably, but also take a load off the environment. For one, you will not be using any paper at all—no envelope, no writing paper. For another, just think of all the fuel that will be saved as your letters won’t have to be transported from place to place via road, railway and aircraft. Top all that off with the fact that a lot of dangerous effluents won’t be released in the atmosphere thanks to your reliance on Messrs. Yahoo!, Google, MSN, Rediff, Indiatimes and other email providers, rather than the good old local postal service.

IM and bulletin boards, not memos
Many people consider instant messaging (IM) a major distraction in work but if used effectively, it can actually facilitate communication in the workplace. An instant messenger like Google Talk or Yahoo!Messenger can help get your message across a lot quicker without your having to engage a telephone line or sending a formal sounding memo. In fact, you can use the IM for communicating virtually anything and even for swapping files (digital ones, of course) in real time. Similarly, an online bulletin board is much more effective than a noticeboard on which bits of papers dangle perilously from pins. Just think of the amount of paper you would save, not to mention the pins (hey, every little bit counts). There are even virtual Post-It sticky notes, for God’s sake!

No disks please, we are digital!
Whether it is games, songs, software, video clips or even films, they can all be downloaded from different sites (perfectly legitimate ones too) from the internet. All you need is decent bandwidth, a credit card and some hard disk space. Not only will this save you the fuss of storing all those CDs and DVDs, but it will also have a huge impact on the environment as discarded disks are not exactly eco-friendly. And then there are the massive savings in terms of packaging—stuff that you often throw away anyway and which is seldom recycled. Yep, buying an iPod can actually benefit the environment.

Bytes rather than books
Almost everything that is in a book can
be found on the internet, whether in free or paid format. All you need to do is search a bit and if need be, loosen those purse strings from time to time. Yes, reading on a computer screen is seldom as comfortable as curling up with your favourite bestseller, but you might consider than investing in an ebook reader (like the famous Amazon Kindle) could help in saving dozens of forests, not to mention all the energy that goes into the publication process. And of course, browsing for books on the internet can be just as much fun as doing so in a bookstore.
Give your vehicle a break
If you are one of those who cannot resist hopping into your car (or whatever wheeler you possess) every time you have to do something, then just pause and see if it can be done online. A number of activities, ranging from banking to booking movie tickets to railways and airline reservations to paying bills of just about every sort can now be done online, from the comfort of your PC (and in some cases, even your cellphone). And of course, that means you will not only be saving time and wear and tear on your vehicle, but also help in keeping the hydrocarbon fuel deposits of the earth ticking over nicely.

Lock that printer
Yes, printouts are sometimes essential but there is plenty of research around to show that most people take printouts just because they can and not because they need to. If we had a dollar for every person who asks an email to be printed out so that he/she can read it, we would have been millionaires. The supremest irony is that almost everything that needs paper can be done digitally. Taking printouts just uses up energy, wastes paper, and of course, also results in empty toners and inkjet cartridges that are notoriously hard to dispose of. So do consider locking up your printer and chucking away the keys, and try to manage by reading off the screen (incidentally, have you noticed how big and clear monitors are becoming?). You will be amazed at how easily you can manage without it. And the planet will be grateful too!

Work from home, sweet home
For some people, bringing work home ranks high in the list of domestic sacrileges. Well, the fact is that it actually ain’t too bad if you do most of your work from home. Just consider the fact that you will be saving lots of fuel that you would normally have spent while travelling to and from office. Your working from home will also result in one less vehicle on the roads, and reduce the chance of gas-sapping jams and snarl-ups. And of course, your office will have to invest in one lesser PC, desk and chair, which in itself will do the environment a good turn.
    And this is just the tip of the iceberg. There’s lots more you can do. But even if you manage this much, it will make a huge dent in pollution levels. A word of caution: all this is a lot easier said than done. It will need a fair bit of co-operation from your family and colleagues to get your tech-ecological act together. That said, the effort would be well worth it. After all, to borrow a famous brand’s line, this is our planet!

Individual Households, Housing Societies And Green Groups Across Mumbai Are Making Compost Out Of Garbage.

 She picks up the loose end of her sari, wraps it tightly around her waist, hoists a bag containing the smelliest rubbish and empties the waste into a huge brick pit stamped with an auspicious vermilion swastika. She then whips out a bottle and sprays an organic liquid on the waste to make the stench vanish.
    She is Vandana, a rag-picker, who is now an important part of a silent revolution sweeping through the city;
it includes many individual households, housing societies and green organisations. These groups, working separately in different areas of the city, are now doing their bit for the environment by recycling garbage and making compost out of it. Vandana has an important role to play; she is one of the foot-soldiers of this revolution after being trained in the process of composting for sustainable zero-waste management.
    What these households and housing societies are doing ensures there is no dearth of manure for people who contribute to the greening of Mumbai. But the unasked-for service has a bigger meaning for the BMC; it helps the civic agency, which faces an acute shortage of land to dispose of waste.
    The silent movement now encompasses housing societies like Dariya Mahal on Nepeansea Road, Pestom Sagar in Chembur and various buildings in Khar, Santa Cruz, Marine Drive and Worli, where residents have taken it upon themselves to ensure that the garbage they produce is not dumped mindlessly; and, in most cases, it’s the housewives who have assumed this responsibility.
    Residents, in some cases, recycle the waste to produce organic manure themselves to make their gardens self-sustainable; in others, rag-pickers are outsourced from NGOs like FORCE or community-based organisations like Stree Ratna Prerna Mandal to segregate the waste and produce compost that is then either sold or given away free.
    Take, for instance, Dariya Mahal in the heart of South Mumbai. Residents have set up a waste-management committee, appointed V Bhatwaregakar the convener to oversee the execution and have created a compost pit in their garden. Five enthusiastic housewives made door-to-door visits to the around-120 households in the A wing of the society to raise awareness. “We even made powerpoint presentations, addressed the ladies’ club of our building and delivered circulars to each home,’’ volunteer Nalini Chugani said. But not everyone in the building has complied as the domestic help, who normally handles garbage, may not have been instructed properly in each home. Chugani would, at one point, supervise the collection of garbage herself and ensure that it was segregated at the household itself. And rag-picker Fazlu from FORCE, who is paid a monthly salary of Rs 1,500 by the society, sorts out the garbage that is not segregated at homes.
    The waste does not attract flies and doesn’t smell at all because of the use of lime. The manure that is produced is used to maintain the building garden and the remaining, locked up in the society office, is either sold or given away to those interested in gardening.
    Rag-picker Rajshri, who recycles garbage at Geetanjali Envirotech at Vile Parle, says she loves her job. It is an open space converted into a small-scale composting site by Dahisar resident Ragini Jain. Rajshri and three others collect garbage on a daily basis from nearby buildings and recycle it. Every kilogram of the manure produced from the waste is sold for Rs 4. Rajshri doesn’t use cowdung and lime for composting but uses an organic liquid called GE Culture to induce decomposition. Scooping powder-like manure from a gunny sack, which smells like pure earth, Rajshri points to a four-foot tree that is only a year old. “Trees grow fast and become healthy with this manure,’’ she smiled. Kishore Kumar, who supervises Rajshri and the three others, says his family initially thought he was a fool for having chosen this job but has now realised how this is also a profitable business.
    Thirty-seven-year-old Dayanand Jadhav, whose community-based organisation — the Stree Ratna Prerna Mandal — has been the recipient of the prestigious Urban Edge award for green initiatives, said there was some resistance to waste management. “We tend to believe that garbage is something to be looked down on. There is no problem as long as it’s in your house but, the minute it is packed in a bag, it becomes intolerable,’’ he said. The organisation, which has around 42 volunteers who are mostly rag-pickers, provides them masks and gloves to motivate them.
WHAT IS COMPOST?
Compost is a nutrient-rich, natural fertiliser and soil-conditioner that is produced after the breakdown of biodegradable organic matter.
HOW IS IT PRODUCED?
Compost can be produced by the use of bacteria or earthworms (the second method is called vermicomposting). YOU CAN ALSO DO IT Making compost from garbage is an easy enough process that can be done even on your balcony
COMPOST FROM BACTERIA
    You will have to place a layer that will act as the base for the process; this base can be anything, ranging from an alumimium sheet to even a glass top.
    Now place the wet garbage on this bedding, which has to be sprayed with an organic liquid called GE Culture or vermiculture microbes that are available in the market to facilitate decomposition; alternatively, you can even use cowdung.
    You will have to churn the waste with a spade at least thrice a day and top it with a layer of dry leaves (but this is not necessary if you use cowdung). Add fresh garbage on the top daily.
    There will be no smell and no flies if you are using the spray; you may also use lime to keep away the flies.
The compost will be ready in 25 to 60 days.
    You will have to extract the powder-like manure with a sieve (with bigger holes than the type used in the kitchen); this manure will be the topmost layer of the compost system. COMPOST FROM EARTHWORMS (VERMICOMPOSTING)
    You will have to put the worms on the bedding (of whatever nonbiodegradable material like metal or glass) and then put the garbage on top.
    The worms then start decomposing the organic matter from the bottom, moving upwards to the newer feed.
The manure is believed to be ready when the worms deposit their own waste on the top layer.
You will have to remove the manure in a similar process (described above).

Bend it, write on it, read it — just don’t try to fold it into a paper plane.
Electronic paper is Japan’s answer to rising raw material costs, depleted resources and booming demand for printed matter from emerging markets such as China and India.
At a high-tech fair in Tokyo this week, Japanese firms showed the latest versions of what is still considered a niche product, ranging from thick, sturdy readers to thin displays that look like plastic sheets and can be bent.
E-Ink, which manufactures Sony’s Reader tablet, says consumers will eventually embrace the energy-saving technology as the cost of paper and fuel goes up. Japan, known for its beautiful hand-made paper as well as its cutting-edge technology, has already been trying to combine the two.
Firms such as Fujitsu and Sony use electrophoretic displays, or EPD, for everything from watches and mobiles to electronic readers. The display sends electronic charges along a grid embedded in the e-paper which cause tiny black and white particles to move, creating text and images.