want in on this with us?
Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 12:19AM 
One of our Kopila family goals for 2012 is to figure out a solution for our garbage. There is close to NO waste management in Nepal; sewer systems, toilets, septic systems, garbage collection, landfills, none of it exists. When I look at Nepal's beautiful sacred holy rivers, forrests, mountains and temples and see garbage or smell rubber and plastic burning in heaps along the side of the road, it makes me immensely sad. I know waste is a problem everywhere! Sometimes I wish I could speed up the growth of my children and get them to start something! Then again, why wait?
The kids and I are really trying to make a commitment to do our part. It's a challenge for us. Between the school and home we produce a lot of waste and there is NO truck that comes around early every Tuesday morning with nice guys in yellow vests to pick it up. There isn't a recycling center either and the city's open sewer and canal system ends right in front of our house due to lack of government funds to finish the job last year so a lot of the garbage from upstream, anything from x-rays, to plastic bottles, to old shoes ends up right in front of our yard. Every time I walk outside the front gate and throw one of Namraj's disposable diapers into the pile I feel a little pang of guilt. We hire a little tractor to come and take the garbage to a dumping site in the city but after that, I have no idea where it will end up.
So here's the plan we came up with. We've been teaching the kids about the concept of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.
If we go to the market we're trying to remember to bring our own bags and stay away from buying things that are packaged.
We're also doing a better job of separating our food compost (in the back of the house,) from our garbage (in the front) and recycling everything we can into sorted bins that we can either carry down 3 hours from here on trips to Nepal Ganj to be recycled or give out to garbage collectors who periodically come by.
It's a small start but we're on our way to being more aware and more responsible.
Kids, fellow Nepalese, and friends all over the world, do you want in on this with us? What little things can you commit to doing this year to be more responsible for the environment and your community wherever you are? Please leave a comment below and I'll share your ideas with the Kopila kids. And let us know if you want to do something in your neighborhood in honor of community service month at Kopila Valley School!
Peace and love from Kopila Valley in Surkhet, Nepal.
Photo by Gail Mooney "Opening Our Eyes"
SEWA (se-va) means SERVICE in Nepali!
Reader Comments (12)
hi maggie and gang,
i am forwarding this to brian morgan, headmaster at lacordaire academy in montclair. he has some very good brains available over there, let's see if they can put their heads together and come up with a solution. you are definitely on the right track!
best, rob
Terrific work. Someday your kids will become elected officials and people with clout. And when that happens, you'll get your nice men in yellow vests.
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!! Great concept to get going in these young minds. You can do great things with Plastic Milk cartons, Make them into shovels for planting a garden. Cut the tops off and use them for planters. You can also use them to hang clothes on the clothesline. Cut a hole in a plastic milk jug in the side opposite the handle. Then cut through the handle about a half-inch from the bottom of the handle to make a "hook" for hanging it on the clothesline. Fill the jug with pins and use the handle to hang it on the line. The kids could decorate them. Water Bottles if glued or taped together can be decorated and used to separate things like, pencils and pens, colored pencils.... They can be cut down and glued together for organizing things like staples, small objects, or seed containers for planting seeds. Small glass jars can be made into candleholders, paint holders. Have Fun!!!!!!
oh yes Nepal need this a lot, this culture you have to...recicle
LOVE IT!!
I'm surprised that you use disposable diapers. Use washable diapers! That makes a huge difference in landfills and trash disposal.
As for me, I'm trying to go from being vegetarian to vegan this year. Eating meat and animal products contributes more environmental destruction to the world than almost anything else we humans do.
from the photo, looks like a number of plastic bottles. is buying water in bottles common there? (presumably in order to get safe drinking water. having travelled briefly in egypt, thailand, indonesia, and a few other lesser developed countries, i know i only drank bottled water while there, altho i don't know how many locals did so.)
if so, have you considered getting a British Berkefeld, (affectionately known as a "Big Berkey") water filter? they are very common apparently among missionaries, expats, and also stateside among those that prepare for emergency situations. the pore size averages 5 microns, which is small enough to filter out essentially all disease-causing bacteria and cysts, such that the water is safe to drink without having to boil it, etc. the filters last for thousands of gallons, resulting in a cost of less than $0.02 per gallon filtered. i have one and use it just for my suburban water to improve the taste, and in case there is an emergency where a "boil water" notice is given. (which there was a few months ago, when a major nearby wildfire impacted the water system.)
possibly a way to save money on the cost of drinking water (for you, or the students at your school), and also reduce the number of plastic water bottles floating around un-recycled. or, if some/many of your students drink un-bottled water, a big berkey might reduce the number of illnesses among them. [and sorry for the long-windedness if none of this applies to your situation!]
also, depending on the situation in the rest of the town, you might find "The Humanure Handbook" useful, which shows how human waste can be composted in a safe and non-smelly way. ( http://humanurehandbook.com/ ) The western system of purifying water to drinking-quality level, then using much of that for waste disposal, and processing the waste with toxic chemicals like chlorine, is highly energy intensive (and hence expensive particularly for poorer developing countries). and assuming peak oil is true, perhaps not the wisest system to emulate. [again, not sure how much of this applies to you there, or how much you already know, so sorry if i've missed the mark.]
don't have specific plans going forward right now, but over the last 5 years i've reduced my waste altho my initial impetus was frugality and simplifying my life. i used to buy all my food at the grocery store. now i get almost all my veggies at the local farmers market, reusing a canvas bag, buy bulk rice, beans, and wheat in 25 lb bags, cook from scratch, bake my own bread and bagels. now, i only buy about 25% of my food at the local grocery store. unfortunately, i'm not in a position to do my own gardening right now, as that is what i'd like to do next, but it will have to wait a while.\
--sgl
wow, SGL awesome post! thanks for sharing that :)
We're doing a bring back the tap campaign over here. I like the idea sgl brought up about filters. Also, I'm not sure how bad the trash is over there, but what about having them make art from it and have them make use of seemingly useless things?
http://www.noupe.com/inspiration/40-terrific-works-of-art-made-from-common-trash.html
something fun for you and your kids (and readers here too):
The Majestic Plastic Bag - A Mockumentary
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLgh9h2ePYw
a short 4 minute "mockumentary", clever and humorously done in the style of a nature show, but with a very serious purpose which "hammers home the stark reality of California's plastic bag pollution situation."
--sgl
I see all kinds of uses for plastic bottles, especially for plants, you might check into it: http://www.flickr.com/photos/greenscaper/1111832482/
also, this family in England has devoted their life to recycling and reducing their waste to zero: http://myzerowaste.com/
1. Construct your next classroom from plastic bottles....check out my website under projects we like "Bottle School" This would be a great project for the community and great solution for all that plastic waste.
2. No more plastic water bottles at Kopila Valley... I am donating Sawyer water filters for the house and school so you will have no need to purchase bottled water.
3. Build a Biogas Digester... recycle human and animal waste to produce cooking fuel.
All this is linked on my website, if you want to check it out. www.miaamicasglobally.com
See you all in 6 weeks...