way forward - going green

What is the way forward? Everytime I go for my weekly shopping, I think I should carry cloth bags like we used to carry when we were children. But then,I will have to separately buy plastic bags to throw garbage, see. So I have told myself that I will go for regular carrybags that department stores give and reuse them as garbage bags. I will definitely say no to the small and inferior quality plastic bags which are used by the vendor when I buy flowers and vegetables from the roadside cart vendor. I will take them with me in the big plastic bag which I already have and sufficient space in them for these add ons. Yes, I am thinking and contributing to the environment in this small way, during my weekly shopping.
Am I a discerning 'green' buyer when I do the actual shopping inside the stores? No, not really so far. But I do restrict myself to buying the stuff I actually feel the need. I make a list during the week as and when I feel the need and mostly stick to buying from the list. I do go in for larger packaging even though it is more convenient to go for smaller packaging, for storing and use.
I go for local brands, like in Nilgiris stores I go for their brand items.I believe the carbon footprint is less this way.I buy locally produced fruits most of the time and also the seasonal ones. In Bangalore I always opt for locally grown banana, the small sweet variety. I usually do not buy fruit juices in cartons except during travel. On such occasions I carefully select the brands which specifically mention ' no chemical or preservative used'.
Have I gone the organic way completely? No, I am afraid not. Some years back when organic was becoming common lingo, there were lots of misinformation, that the organic tag is a misnomer and we are cheated by being charged a hefty premium for a non existing benefit to the environment and our health. So I never really got started on the organic front. Yes,I do patronise a shop selling exclusive organic products. They cost atleast twice what similar products cost in stores. But I think it is an investment worth making.
At home I have switched over to cfc bulbs and am quite keen on using electricity and water very carefully, studiouly.
But do I use public transport when I can. The waiting and the uncertainty of public transport is not making me opt for it when I travel within the city. Let me see with metro and mono rail being commissioned I might make a change.
With rising incomes, travel has become the cause for increasing global warming. I am restricting myself to travel only when it is essential. Yes, truly.
Before signing off I recall our travel by train when we were kids. We carried food, but constantly replenished water from the station tap in our 'koojas'. We did not fall sick drinking out of the station tap. But now it is unthinkable. Everyone of the passengers carry a plastic waterbottle!

green family

I have thought long about the life then and now. Women pursuing careers seriously have a direct bearing on waste generation!They are aware and hence give a premium for quality.They are short of time, so convenience is paramount.They have more disposable income, so take away foods,ready to eat food stuffs are part of her life.

Let us take one at a time.

Being concerned with quality is right for the family for wrong for the environment. Yes, they opt for more off the shelf products which are packaged. Let us take some examples. Wheat used to be taken to the mill in jute bags and ground atta would be brought back in huge containers or strong cloth bags. They would be stored in huge dubbas to last for a month. Now atta is bought in one kilo packets.They come in polythene packets.They are quite small and cannot be recycled for any other purpose, so end up in the dustbin.Invariably it is also branded which means that the stuff is transported for long distances from their factory site and adds to fuel costs and global warming. Family health is important and the women perceive branded food products to adhere to hygiene standards better than the ones in the local kirana shops.

We have seen in this example as we started on quality, we have come to the idea that time is in short supply for her and also she can pay more for quality and its convenience and labour saving time.All the three are intertwined.

Another important aspect is the hectic travel lifestyles that we have come to adopt. Travel puts a heavy strain on the environment. OF course the most obvious is the fuel cost of travel, be it bus, train, car or plane. Longer travel in earlier days meant packing food for the family to last the entire two or three days. Nowadays since ready to eat foods are available and they are also appear quite hygenic, it is natural that generally people have preferred to buy them than carry inconvenient huge food baskets. The other day I was waiting in a station to receive a friend. I saw the tap which had a label drinking water being used by the vendors and coolies and not by a single traveller. All of them had packaged water bottles with them. Water bottles have contributed singly to the maximum damage to environment, but they are more hygienic and convenient. All other food items are use and throw, be it chips or fruit juices or soft drinks or tea cups. We hated the tea glasses and now left with throwaway cups!

Take idli batter for one, the greatest invention of mankind to help the working woman in chennai! The plastic bag cannot be used in the house for any other purpose and it goes directly into the waster paper basket.

See I am now on a guilt trip.I am beginning to feel quite bad for patronising convenience foods, hygienic foods and labour saving items in the grocery list.

Is it okay to balance and plant a tree every month?

We were a green family - part II

If appa was a zero wastage person, amma scaled new heights. It was such a talking point in the family circles that my cousin one day remarked, " chitti does not waste anything, including sunlight!"She made this remark one day while coming into our house. The front porch was fully bathed in sunlight and the floor space was dotted with plates and baskets full of stuff which were gettting dried in the sun with not an inch unutilised.

Amma fully lived up to the reputation. We had a garbage pit in the backyard and I used to wonder how often we collected compost from the same. Not very often. Then what happened to all the bio degradable waste that we should have generated when we were kids? It was simply that we did not waste them, we consumed them!

Let me see. All the edible peels of fruits and vegetables were not thrown off but were either consumed in the raw or were recycled as chutney. Chow chow, orange peels I distinctly remember the 'tugayal' transformation. Banana peels were used directly in flowering plants, as they make them flower more. They were also used to treat the various insect bites that we used to be subjected to. A gentle rub on the affected part and even after the caterpillar sting leaves the skin bumpy and itchy, it will be cured within a few minutes.There was no question of peeling apples, mangoes and guavas; we would wash them well and consume right away.No wastage. Potatoes were mostly used with the coat on.If it is the greens, the leaves were separately used for the 'masiyal' and the stems for sambhar. Only the roots were left to be thrown into the garbage pit.

We had mangoes, lemon, tamarind, guava, cashew , blueberries and 'ilupa' tree in our compound. So it was an year round activity of harvesting and immediately drying them and then utilising them. You must be wondering about the 'ilupa' tree. Bats used to particularly like the fruits and would eat them and drop the seeds. Athai would forage the area and collect the seeds.They would be drying in the sun. Once it becomes a sizeable amount, we would sit together and chisel away the outer cover and salt away the kernel. Over a period of time the kernels would be collected and taken for extracting oil.It is believed the oil is very auspicious for lighting lamps. The residue of the process was again used as 'arappu podi' to clean oily vessels. No we did not buy the magic vim liquid, whose one drop will clear a sink full of oily and grimy vessels.

Of course, raw mangoes, tamarind used to be harvested and dried extensively and used in its myriad forms.

I remember monthly rations time. Every single item delivered used to be wrapped like a cone in a newspaper and tied with a jute thread. No packaging, no plastic pouches. We had specific vessels for oils and we used to carry them and fill them with pure oil. Yes, it meant doing research and being a vigilant consumer. The quality used to be identified with a specific shop or the oil mills in the neighbourhood.They had to earn it and not lazily piggyback on an international brand!The newspapers used to be evened out and used to line the shelves in the kitchen. Jute thread will be carefully rolled and used. Again zero wastage in the entire process. I now compare with my monthly shopping bags and the waste is almost as much atleast in volume to the items bought for use.

It is amazing to think about it now.

I will be back after a short break, please dont go away.

We were a green family

A few days back I read an interesting article in a leading newspaper. The author was saying about the 'green' concepts which used to be a part and parcel of her mom's everydaylife.She mentioned about worn out socks being recycled and used as scrubber to remove the tough stains in the cooking vessels, much before the 'scotch brites' of the world.

Immediately my mind went back to my early childhood days and the 'zero garbage' which was the religion for us those days. Of course it was a natural way and no tags were attached then.

Let me start with appa. He was a professor in a college, and used to get lots of reading materials. Some of it used to be on one side of the sheet only. After being done with them, he will carefully put them aside and amma used to stich it into a notebook. Of course we believed in community work and all of us used to pitch in. These were used as 'rough note books'. I still remember my teacher in 6th standard, aghast at the 'handmade' and a very rough 'rough note book'.These note books were also used by appa and amma for writing 'sriramajayam'.

Appa used the 'used envelopes' in the same way that Gandhiji was said to use them. He would open them out and reverse it and the odd shaped paper will be used for solving maths problems (for us of course!).Amma also used to total her shopping 'account' in them deligently.

Envelops which were of better quality were retained as such. The existing address portion will be superimposed with a small strip of white paper, and it is now ready to be used as a fresh envelope! Yes you guessed it, the strip will invariably be the reverse side of another envelope!

Again, I dont remember going to a shop and buying gum. I see such varied and stylish and colourful gums that kids use so readily these days for their project work. We used a simple cooked rice and water system as our standard gum material. Of course when we had extensive decoration work during 'kolu', we made a colourful paste from maida. It used to be a big process, and neem stick used to be the glue stick to ladle out the glue on to the colour papers.I also remember the colourful resins which used to ooze out of the 'drumstick' tree in our backyard. It can be used as a gum, but it was used more for play and fooling around and not for any serious work!

Appa used to get answer papers for correction from the University. The postman used to deliver them in huge bundles, wrapped in 'meenakshi gaada' cloth. No it was not a simple job of tearing it open and throwing the cloth and the brown paper covers into the dustbin. We used to remove the cloth carefully along the seams. It used to be washed and then given to the dhobhi for bleaching. At the end of an 'exam season', we would have a fairly large collection of these clothes in all shapes and sizes. Amma used to sit and match the clothes as per the shapes and stich them as hand towels, napkins, pillow covers and cloth bags. Needless to add, we were also drafted in to this 'kudisai tozhil'.

The brown paper covers will be used to send back the answer sheets to the university; yes you got the drift, by pasting them with a white paper.

There were no fancy 'gillette' razors those days. Appa used the 7 o' clock blades for his shave. He used to preserve them for I guess four or five shaves. He used to write the dates on which he used them on the flap of the cover. We were not allowed to use them even for any 'urgent' work.After the fourth or fifth time, he used to release them for 'general usage"!

Just a minute, we will take a short break! I will be back. Dont go away.