How to reduce your waste?!

In the vast pacific ocean lies a small patch of garbage. Also known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, it weighs in at about a 2,000,000,000 pounds and an estimated 1.8 trillion individual pieces of plastic dwell in it. The patch is bigger than the state of California and the matter is definitely concerning. But you have read a lot about these types of patches already. This blog is not another memo warning about the ill effects of the plastics. Rather, it discusses how you and I can make a change. Lets begin with stopping the use of aluminium and plastic wraps, instead we can use the reusable cloth wraps which are easy to use and need just the warmth of your hand to mold into desired shapes. Another big problem are the plastic bottles. They pile on and on and make for an easy waste. Alternatively, we can start using reusable bottles. Stainless steel bottles make for a great alternative to plastic bottles and are even look cooler. The third thing I have for today's blog are the reusable coffee cups. The paper cups are not easy to compost. The wax coating makes their life much longer than the sustainable decomposition period. The reusable coffee cups, however, are just reusable. Much more efficient and much more beautiful. It is magical to see yourself save your own planet.

Energy conservation!!

The planet earth is running out of natural resources. Our extra-ordinary use of electricity, petroleum and coal for our day to day comfort, is no where responding to what environmentalists came up with called "sustainable development" where we would use resources in such a way that it would not affect the comfort of future generations.

Conserving these resources can start from home:

Few ways that I could up with on spot and try to adapt to these habits in my day to day life would be:

1. Turning off lights and fans when not in use.

2. Keep the water taps turned off when brushing

3.Try to use more of bikes rather than cars

4.While using cars, try to car pool so not more than 1 car is used where at least 3 people can use the same amount of gas (and hence gas conservation)

5.Change the "traditional" lights with compact fluorescent lights or light-emitting diode bulbs , as it uses 40-70% less energy.

6.Using energy efficient appliances

7.Sealing the cracks and holes in your house if any, this helps less use of cooling and heating devices.

8.Install solar panels and make sure that all the house electricity uses solar energy

9.Make sure to compost the food waste

Water harvesting!!

Water, the fundamental requirement of any living specie. How is that by even being aware of this, the water bodies are heavily polluted, without considering that this could lead to the endangerment of our own kind?

The wholesome industrialization and urbanization, is leading to bulk of waste being deposited in the rivers and lakes because it is thought that disposing this waste will not trouble them with extra costs for disposing this in a healthier or a sustainable way.This not only pollutes the rivers making it difficult for human forms around the area not be able to drink river water anymore, but it also pollutes the large water bodies like oceans and seas.
These rivers and lakes that the industries pollute with their machine waste, are at some point connected to seas and oceans, and then when these large water bodies are polluted, the aquatic forms get heavily affected. This forms over time get endangered and eventually extinct.


With all these problems humans are causing, how does one make sure that the water we consume is clean and pollutant free?
Water harvesting;
We all know that the rain water is the purest form of water.Water harvesting is basically a practice to conserve and capture all the rain water possible, either from runoffs of rooftops, seasonal flood waters, or local streams.
 number of countries have implemented water harvesting, few cities have made it mandatory too.
Chennai being one of them.They did it to avoid ground water depletion.The result of this law was great after 5 years, as the water quality significantly improved.

Various advantages of water harvesting are:
1.Water availability during drought season
    Parts of the year without rainfall and no flood, lead to long drought seasons.And the this harvested water could come to use.
2.Independent water source
   At times, water is expensive to be able to pay for. Installing a water harvesting system saves this constant spenditure of money and makes it a one time installation thing.

Sustainable cities

Urbanization is the future. In the contemporary day, we are seeing people fleeing towards urban centers to manage a better life for themselves. It is one of the most easily to note trends of the era. We see more and more influx and less and less efflux in the cities. However, this means that with the rise in city population, there will be a rise in city problems. Common complications include: waste, traffic, pollution and infrastructure issues. Sustainability is the answer to these problems and cities are striving for it. Ideally a sustainable city has a few common traits; including but not limited to: promoting livability, promoting social harmony, disaster management, having adequate infrastructure. These are the most basic and rudimentary goals among the other more sophisticated needs that a city and its dwellers can have. 

Sustainability and efficiency go hand in hand in the context of sustainable cities. Efficiently managing waste, power, and other resources, drive a city towards a sustainable future. Figures have suggested that the farms and other food production units are producing adequate amounts of food to feed everybody on the face of the earth and more. However, people are still sleeping with their bellies empty and therefore, we are failing at handling our resources properly. In this crucial phase of humanity where we are fighting the war against climate change, we need to be as efficient as possible and do our part to build a sustainable city.