Learning Journal on Waste Management
This journal is a sharing of my self-discoveries in lieu of the subject waste management as reflected in my daily activities. These activities will include from going to the grocery to reading newspapers to consciously venturing into waste recycling practices and even to simply make an inventory of my own carbon footprint.
Undergoing these common experiences with a critical perspective led me to reconsider some of my usual way of living adjusting it to lessen my own environmental footprint by managing my time, materials and ways of doing things in consideration to my environment. Definitely there were small initiatives that came out from this learning journal that I am grateful for.
Best of all, the exercise enabled me to document these insights which I hope to continue even after the course.
Movie 2012
The movie visualized a doomsday scenario. It was a modern day Noahs Ark story where humanity triumphed despite mans weaknesses and natures wrath. Moviegoers buzzed over the special effects of the movie. Some were just fans of doomsday scenarios. My take on the film is enlightening. I was made aware not so much of the doomsday possibility and the idea that humanity can be saved by a futuristic Noahs Ark where rich people can buy themselves a ticket, but what shocked me was the amount of materials that got destroyed as the world went underwater. So many cars, house, buildings, bridges, and more things made of steel, glass, and aluminum. Everything was exploding and going on fire, underwater and into smokes. Water was engulfing it in just one effortless splash. The movie ended with the Arcs finding paradise that is green and covered with vegetation while water surrounds the new found island, and happy people excited to rebuild and repopulate.
I believed that the scenario is possible. Theres more to science that we dont know. I believed that the human spirit has the capacity to envision survival techniques. What I dont believe is the way man has surrounded himself with all inanimate objects. From a green lush of vegetation, man surrounded himself with an environment that was as cold as steel capable of fueling fire in a flash. How did we ever get to this place called urban area
The movie showed snapshots of how urban man produced so much waste in the guise that people needed these things. It was depressing. Steel will never be the same to me again. Reflecting on my analysis, I believe that my appreciation for automobiles went down a few notches lower. I know that a lot of families have at least two cars and its deemed necessary due to lifestyles. But on second thought, if there is a will to manage waste then managing comfort zones on an individual basis can help make the difference in a big way no matter how small an offering.
Going to the supermarket
On a weekly basis, I make it a point to get supplies to approximate freshness in my food consumption. On day three of my learning journal, I took extra time looking at food labels of the hundred of products available in the local supermarket, a few blocks away from where I lived. My findings brought me to note how much abundant in terms of food choices the community had access to. Grocery stores were categorized according to product then my grocery store categorized the products according to calorie, sugar free, organically grown, with no preservatives, vitamin fortified, and other hidden persuaders that was part of what I was buying. There were at least 20 different brands of shampoo. And one brand carried specifics like for dry or oily hair, with or without conditioner, anti-dandruff, anti-fizz, anti animal testing and so on.
For the longest time that the grocery was offering these products, there was no need for me to question the labels. I just assumed that regulatory committees and institutions were in place and doing their job. It was more than enough for me to finally decide what kind of shampoo to take given the choices. But during that particular grocery visit, I took a second look at the manufacturers. The same company manufactured a number of products. A line of different products had the same brand so much so that you can buy products from head to foot from the same brand. I realized that there was no real competition in terms of product content and service. There was just a competition in price. One brand offered shampoo to all market segments thereby securing their profitability.
And I bought three kinds of shampoo for good measure. How many shampoo brands do I need to clean my hair Its the same question posted by the environmentalist when they ask you, how much do you need when half the products you buy specially on sale eventually just goes to waste after its locked for a year in the cupboards waiting for it to reach expiry date. Overconsumption, in this day and age when humans stress the environment for so much wants than needs is unforgiveable. And overabundance is not an excuse either for overconsumption. One result of overabundance is pressure to add value to foods through processing. The producers of raw foods receive only a fraction of the price that consumers pay at the supermarket. The remaining 80 of the food dollar goes for labor, packaging and other such value-enhancing activities. (Nestle, 2007) Overconsumption eventually leads to waste.
Upon arriving home, I checked the cupboards and made a list of the usual grocery items. I vowed to always bring this list whenever I go to the grocery and make sure that I dont buy anything unnecessary. Just because its on sale doesnt mean that I need to buy it.
Visiting the recycling shop
Studies show that households has so much waste that managing a communities waste can be a nightmare. For example, canadian households continue to generate more solid waste, and the majority of it ends up in landfill sites. Each Canadian generated about383kilograms of solid waste on average in2002, of which about one-fifth was recycled or otherwise diverted, according to a report in the2005edition of Human Activity and the Environment, the annual compendium of information on how Canadians interact with their environment.
Waste segregation starts at the home. Decades ago it was just about biodegradable and non-biodegradables. Current practice went into specifics like paper, bottles, cartons, kitchen refuse, plastics and furniture. One day, I had an idea to go and check out the recycling shop in our community. I wanted to see what they did with those segregated materials, like where it went, how they handled it and what they did with it.
I found out that paper went to a paper recycling plant that made cartons. Bottles were further clustered according to their shape and sizes and sent to their original bottling plants for re-use. Kitchen refuse was sent to an anaerobic digester that treated the effluents before they threw it into the municipal sewers. And as for plastics, they had to compress these plastics, melt them to recycle them into plastics again.
My field trip to the recycling plant was memorable because I was this ninth grader again who was as excited to go on a field trip with no idea whatsoever of what Id encounter. There were lots of machines and a few workers and the shop manager who didnt mind the grime and dirt because compared to decades ago, handling waste in this age was way so much better because segregation started at home. Bottles were cleaner, paper didnt mix with kitchen refuse, and organizing was more manageable therefore the shop is able to gather more waste from nearby communities. The shop earns from waste and therefore the more waste they collect, the more they can earn from it.
What a lovely field trip. My segregation at the house made more sense because if I can manage my own environment, and my neighbors do it also, collectively, it adds up to an even bigger sum than the mere adding up of me and my neighbors waste. I believe thats what they call synergy. I guess waste management makes more impact when a collective consciousness actively puts it in place. From then on, segregation on my part wont be an obnoxious thing to do, nor make it become just an ordinary habit. I would always be reminded that each time I take effort to segregate conscientiously, I know Im directly helping my environment.
Lecture on Organic Waste
The community of my uncle is into organic waste recycling. They have this small farm with free-range chickens and a small patch of herbal garden.
Last week, I visited my uncle and this time conscientiously listened to his 20-minute lecture on his organic gardening. I visit my uncle on some weekends when I crave for home cook meals. So that weekend, I had a home cook rosemary chicken while he lectured on organics.
If to see is to believe, I had no choice but to believe how organics changed his life. He used to be an automobile sales man during his younger days but finally went back to his country home to live off the land, so to speak. He had about 500 chickens in his small backyard of different age. The backyard that was once, concrete, was raised using soil bedding. The chickens happily scratched, pooped and pecked at these soil beddings during their lifetime. At the other end of the backyard was a small 50 square meter of herb garden that was also on raised beds. My uncle said he would spray pro-biotics to the surroundings as pest prevention and bacteria prevention. Probiotics had effective micro-organism that fed off the micro organisms that gave out bad smell like those of the other chicken farms.
From time to time, my uncle would transfer the soil from the chickens to the herb garden and vice versa. It was literally and physically a cycling and recycling of nutrients. My uncles chicken consumption was just three chickens a week and so he would sell chickens to his neighbors along with lettuce, arugula, basil and tarragon to spice up the poultry meat. He earns from this selling of chickens enough to buy him his weekly grocery, utilities and other expense of an inexpensive lifestyle, including having to cook for me on weekends.
My uncle is living proof of organic recycling. He is one of those new farmers that could save the planet. Hailing from small vegetable farms, cattle ranches and grain farms covering thousands of acres, producers have embraced new approaches to agriculture. They are renewing profits, enhancing environmental stewardship and improving the lives of their families as well as their communities.
I learned a lot about pro-biotics and managing a small piece of land just enough to sustain simple needs. I know that these are part of sustainable agriculture. Sustainable agriculture is a rapidly growing field aiming at producing food and energy in a sustainable way for humans and their children. Sustainable agriculture is a discipline that addresses current issues such as climate change, increasing food and fuel prices, poor-nation starvation, rich-nation obesity, water pollution, soil erosion, fertility loss, pest control, and biodiversity depletion. (Lichtfouse, 2010)
But whats more important is that simple Grade 5 Science experiment is making my uncle healthy. He doesnt spray synthetics nor inject antibiotics and hormones on his crops and livestock that makes the chicken very juicy and tender and disease risk free.
Though I cant stop eating at the fast foods, I can definitely buy my share of chicken budget for the week. Maybe I can bring some friends and let them taste organic chicken. Maybe they will like it and get some tasty idea about organics. Maybe some of my friends who have farms would think about probiotics. Who knows Im just proud of my uncle who took to heart waste management and made it into a lifestyle instead of just merely a course to pass in a university.
Analyzing my own Carbon Footprint
Last week, I figured to list down the ways of my using water as a personal exercise in resource inventory. The list highlights my use of water that starts as soon as I wake up. I use the bathroom at least three times a day. I use water for the kitchen at least twice a day, for preparing, cooking food and cleaning dinner plates. Cleaning the house daily use water. The plants are watered everyday as well.
I use at least 100 gallons of water a week that totals to 3,000 gallons a month. The arithmetic goes on. This data shows me how dependent I am of water. As they say, a man can go on 40 days and 40 nights without food but three days without water can become life threatening. But in my list of water, drinking water to nourish my body takes on less than 5 glasses a day that is less than the recommended dietary suggestion. The rest of the water I use goes to making my own abode-environment clean according to the standards of my community.
My dilemma took me to criticize how much water I use to flush my pee. Would it be better to flush every after three pees Would that help the environment Was this an important dilemma If I had a thousand pees left in my lifetime, would my water conservation amount to at the least a hectare for irrigating corns Managing my water, at the least meant that I would have to use water wisely in a conservative manner I suppose.
It would not be advantageous to me directly. I wouldnt want my bathroom to smell acidic. I cant hold out my pee either. And I cant share pee flushing with my neighbors. One solution that comes to mind is a flushing gadget. These gadgets can measure the amount of water used for flushing. Minimum mode is flushing for pee and maximum mode is flushing for everything else. Its a minimal investment on my part considering the guilt I now have of using too much water.
Unhealthiest Food at the Mall A Yahoo Article
Browsing the internet daily, I chanced upon this article on health entitled, Unhealthiest Food at the Mall. It interested me because I also frequent the malls when I get a chance. The article posts a list of unhealthy food and offers alternatives. For example, drinking Mango Mantra instead of Jumbo Java Juice that packs sugar equivalent to six packs of MM. It suggests a Tomato Pizza over an Sbarro Stuffed Pepperoni. It will choose Broccoli with Eggplant Tofu instead of Panda Orange Chicken which is yummy. The authors basis of comparison is the amount of salt, unsaturated fats and calories that the food is packed with. Never minding the taste and how it sounds or how it looks, the author believes that these mall food and drink generally makes teens go on their way to obesity.
I believe this author did his nutrition research. I commend on his effort of publishing alternatives to the food that is criticized. Its also best that he shared the reason why he published the article because it puts in perspective his motives which was to help a column fan. The article will definitely help other readers like me.
This puts me into realizing that while there is an external environment to be managed, there is also an internal environment to be dealt with, personally, 24 by 7, even while sleeping. The amount and kind of food we take affect our internal environment which is composed of organs, blood flow, balance, and to those who believe, spiritual dimension.
Calories, unsaturated fats and salt are not evil by themselves. What makes the internal environment imbalanced and dis-ease is getting too much or too little of something too hot, too spicy, too sweet or too salty. Traditional Chinese Medicine studies suggest that knowing the right food to eat begins by knowing the outer environment. Heavy breakfast warms the body up that came from sleep where sleep is experienced during night when there is not sun and therefore is a cold environment. So while the sun rises, the environment warms up and so should the body warm up as well. Vegetables and fruits that are predominantly cold will balance the body during lunch hours if and when lunch is taken at noon when the environment is very hot.
Dis-ease begins when internal temperatures, pressure and volume are imbalanced due to over intake of anything that is salty, sweet, sour, or bitter. Research on this article and reflection on this topic has made me reflect on how I manage my own internal environment. Health is a reflection of the balance between the different aspects of ourselves (body, mind, soul) and our environment, our experiences, our associations and our food. There cannot be sickness in any of these categories without its being reflected to some degree in all of the others. (Tierra 1980) It is shocking to find out after reading this article that some companies offer goods that are essentially of no use to the body and therefore just a waste of energy.
Summary
The field of waste management seems large and full of challenges at first thought. Waste management is a big concept. Managing it makes it more complicated. In the early onset of this learning journal, I really didnt know where to start. But as soon as I jotted down my plans, laying out an outline of what I can do first, things seem to fall into place.
The journal led me to look at my own waste products, internally and externally. I didnt need to go to the North Pole to understand global warming. I didnt need to go to a big farm to understand sustainable agriculture. The supermarket and my experience there was enough to open my sights on the ills of overproduction and how capitalism destroys the environment.
The journal definitely led me on a journey of exploration and search for answers because observing definitely led one to questions that was not there before. Life before the journal just went on like any other Monday to Sunday habits. Whats scary is that I have been going through my habits not knowing that the little things I do affects the planet including the planet inside me.
I know that I learned a lot because I enjoyed the explorations. It was a big field trip in a sense that I didnt really attend lectures or seminars. I had a great time going to different places that were always there and where I always went but this time, with the learning journal in mind, I discovered that I could learn from these common environments. Observations, analysis, reflection and reaction were prime movers to my journey and discovery. These skills have to become the habit instead of habits that do not help the environment albeit increase the chances of its destruction.
March 10, 2006 -- There has been a significant buzz on television commercials and in the media making a strong case that everyone needs to add probiotics into their diets for good health. Faith Popcorn, trend predictor, noted probiotics as one of the hottest food trends for 2006. Are you confused by terms like probiotics that sound more like a chemistry experiment than a dietary supplement Youre not alone.
Probiotics are the latest in the category of good-for-you foods. Basically, they are good bacteria added to foods or occurring naturally in certain yogurts, fermented dairy drinks, and in supplement form. Probiotics have been used as a form of treatment for a variety of gastrointestinal diseases including irritable bowel, lactose intolerance, travelers diarrhea, and antibiotic-induced diarrhea.
How do they work Scientists are not exactly sure but surmise that the good bacteria replace or crowd out the germs or bad bacteria in the intestinal tract. Another theory is that the good bugs keep the intestinal tract acidic where bad bugs cant survive. Our digestive tracts are lined with more than 400 different kinds of good bacteria that help fight off infection and keep us healthy. The largest group of good bacteria is the one found in yogurt. By consuming foods with probiotics, you can increase the number of healthy bacteria, boost your immunity, and promote a healthy digestive system.
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