Doing their bit for the Environment

The Earthsense column draws varied responses from readers - queries, suggestions on subjects we may consider writing on, information about what they are doing for the environment, what needs to be done, complaints and concerns. Once in a way, there is a letter from an individual who just cannot sit back and accept wastage of natural resources without trying to do something about it. One such can't-sit-back-and-accept-wastage reader is Joice B. Alex.

Joice's plan to facilitate recycling of waste newspaper (see box, with picture of Joice) worked rather well in Satwa, where she and her husband, Biju, lived for four years before moving to their present home in the Municipality Development Board buildings in Ghusais. It was a complex of 35 flats in Satwa. Each family would leave newspapers and periodicals outside their apartments for the watchman to pick up. Once a week, a scrap dealer (fortunately, he lived in the same area) would collect these and transport them to a paper trading company in Jebel Ali, that exports post-consumer waste paper for recycling overseas. One woman. One idea. One small step towards conservation.

When Joice moved to Ghusais in 1996, there was no such system in place. "It used to pain me to dump our newspapers. When the recycling plant that I called told me that I needed to have a large enough quantity to make it worth picking up, I spoke to my neighbours about giving their papers in to the watchman to collect and pass on to the scrap dealers. But they were not interested."

Joice and Biju then decided that they would habitually store old newspapers in the boot of their car, so they could be deposited in a Khaleej Times bin or a recycling centre whenever they went out shopping. "But," she worries, "ours is only one household. There are 35 buildings with 20 apartments each, in this complex. That's a total of 700 households. Imagine the quantity of recyclable newspaper that is trashed!

I am always on the lookout for ways to save paper. Biju and I liked your idea of greetings by email and telephone instead of cards. We have started doing this already!" She was referring to an Earthsense feature in January 1999.

In a prevailing 'just chuck it' culture, it is refreshing to come across a citizen like Joice, whose sensitivity to the environment has made her attempt solutions to the waste problem at home as well as in her neighbourhood. What brings forth this concern? "Environment is second nature to me. It's the way I've been brought up to think," she explains. "I try to use and reuse without wasting; to innovate and find solutions. I've learnt this from my parents. When I would ask mum how she learnt, she said it was from her mother." Catch 'em young, goes the saying. But how many sustain the practice as Joice does?

Take a simple thing like composting kitchen vegetable scrap, for instance. Joice has flowerpots full of compost that she has made from onion and potato peals, tealeaves and greens. She hasn't picked up the idea from a book on horticulture; nor one on 'how to save the world'; not even from an environmental science text. It's what she has grown up seeing, and continued doing; even if it is only on a balcony and not a garden. She tells me, with pride, that in Satwa, she had tomatoes, aubergines, chillies and curry leaves growing on compost. In her present place her 'kitchen garden' is still developing. "Do you know that cactus, chopped up, makes excellent manure? Just make a shallow channel around the plant and line it with cactus pieces. My mother taught me this. It takes a lot of nourishment for a plant to grow in the desert. And cactus is rich in minerals," Joice points out.

She loves her plants. "Like people, they need someone to talk to them. So I talk to my plants and it makes a difference. Try it. You'll see how they perk up. I do have my pet plants. When my favourite - a croton - died when I was away for a couple of months, I broke down."

Joice has literary interests too. She holds a M.Phil. Degree in English Literature and reads a lot - "anything goes when nothing is available" - and spends a lot of time writing, especially short stories and poetry. "I write whenever, wherever something grabs my interest...even news." Like the poems that she wrote after the 1991 Gulf war - "A song for the soldier" and "Scent of death". And another, in a bout of loneliness - "Reminiscences." Some have been published, but Joice doesn't consider publication when writing. It is "private and inspired" writing that she shares with her family. Apart from her literary pursuits, she enjoys cooking. (I asked for her recipe of 'avial,' that light, nutritious, yummy, southern Indian dish full of the goodness of greens; and grated fresh coconut - one reason for my visit to the Lulu Centre).

With her academic qualifications and creativity, why is she not in an office 'on the fast track'? She is not career-oriented "I just want to be occupied." Joice taught for a short while - English literature to senior classes in St. Mary's School - and has now settled down to some freelance copy writing.

But more about Earthsense concerns. What, other than the trashing of newspapers, bothers Joice in Dubai? Plastic shopping bags, naturally! She wants to know how I handle this menace; and I tell her about my large EEG bag with little cloth bags inside to hold and absorb moisture from the damp stuff.

Another concern - the bursting, expanding landfill - "To make a place look beautiful, they bury something! That's the skeleton in the cupboard." She is referring to the huge quantities of garbage that the municipality so efficiently removes to dumps, and makes the city look clean and pretty.

Laws to curb waste and promote recycling, opines Joice, are necessary because people will respond only when there are rules, and these are enforced. Also vital is the setting up of recycling bins in all residential areas and shopping malls, especially with the shopping festival coming up.

Garbage dump... the city is clean, but the landfill is expanding

Provide adequate facilities and then make sure that the public uses these, she feels. And why cannot incentives be given for the return of bottles, cans and the like? "I have been thinking about the collection of plastic for recycling. Companies should do their bit. It is not enough to use recyclable containers. Coca Cola, for example, is offering an array of gifts for the return of Coke bottle caps. Why only caps? Make it bottles (and cans) too. Coke should collect these and send them to recycling companies. The public would really appreciate such a move. And Coca Cola will acquire a green image, which is so important in this day and age!"

Well, there is so much that can, and should, happen. But, for a start, if all residents of the Municipality Development Board buildings in Ghusais start their newsprint collection, as Joice suggests, it will be a move in the right direction, and will motivate others to follow suit. They can be sure that Earthsense will let all its readers know about it!