It’s the end of 2022. We would like to have some brain exercise with you our precious earthlings.
We believe many of you had kickstarted your sustainable practices. At least, some actions of love towards our beloved Mother Earth. But first, let’s answer these few simple questions.
1. How much food takeaways have you done in a week?
2. Assuming you don’t bring your own containers, what do you with all the containers, cutleries, packaging bags, cups and stirrers?
3. How much reusables/recyclables do u collect in a week?
Let us help you with some ideas. For many people, due to its convenience, food takeaways fit their busy lifestyle the most. However, it always comes with a catch.
Here, we’ll give you some examples.
Let’s say, your frequent weekly takeaways are from your favourite coffee shop for breakfast, and for lunch you buy food from either the nearest café at your workplace or order for food delivery, these will come with their set of packaging. Paper, plastic or polystyrene containers; paper or plastic cups, straws, and cup holders and lid; wooden or plastic cutleries; plastic pouches; paper or plastic straws; paper or plastic bags. And not to forget to mention about packaging charges and delivery charges.
Can you relate?
Now, we’ll bring you to another scenario.
What do you do with all those packaging items? Do you wash them clean and reuse or upcycle? Or wash them clean, collect, and send to recycle centre? Or simply throw them into the rubbish bin? The latter saddened us and the earth the most. Imagine if all goes into dumpsite, how much waste actually go to waste (pun intended)?
Well, we have the answer. According to an article in The Star on October 24, 2021, Malaysians generate about 38,699 tonnes of solid waste every day. That is an average of 1.17kg per person - at least!
At some points we have to force ourselves to start sustainable habits and measure our practices. Yes, sustainable practices CAN BE MEASURED. We can help you. And how to do it? Start with these for a week:
1. Clean and keep all plastic takeaway packaging in a big reusable bag or box. You may stack them up to save space.
2. Clean and keep all paper cups and the lids including all the cup holder.
3. Clean and keep all polystyrene containers.
4. Fold and keep all paperbags
5. Fold or roll, and keep all plastic bags.
Do these for one week and let us know how much you get in the end of the day. Update us in the comment section so that we can interact. From here, we promise that thing will get more interesting. Let’s start measuring our sustainable practices for the new year.
Happy New Year 2023 Precious Earthlings!
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