Waste Management at Home-Why and How

There is famous saying that “Charity begins at Home” which means before taking care of others one should take care of his or her home first. Waste management at home is the first step to keep our environment safe

The link between the above said saying and this topic is that before learning how to manage outside waste, we should first learn how to manage the waste of our home.

Story to relate:

In India it is difficult to properly segregate and manage the household waste because here the responsibility of managing the house is of only the female i.e, the housewives and it’s difficult to solely manage the entire waste of the household and no one here knows the importance of segregating the household waste.

As I have seen it happening in my own house.

In the morning the waste collector comes to collect the waste and put all the waste of each and every household in the apartment in one bucket and that’s how the waste collected goes to landfills without proper segregation and the waste gets dumped in the landfill without proper treatment.

That’s the reason why I chose to write this blog, to educate the people who will read it about the importance of waste management at home, how they can manage their waste by suggesting some creative it ideas and how they will help the society by doing so.

What’s in it for me:

• Why to manage waste at home
• Effective ways of managing waste at home
• Benefits of managing waste
• Conclusion
• FAQ

Why to Manage Waste at Home?

Every home is unique and have some home waste be it in the form of dry or wet garbage off the kitchen which required proper handling and doing so is seriously important for health and hygiene of your family and neighbors.

Proper home waste management is seriously important for the community and it has a lot of social importance.

This is because of each household disposes too much of waste then that can cause a lot of degradation in the environment.

It will lead to too much of pollution, spread of germs that in turn, will cause lot of outbreak of diseases, just like the corona virus which is a threat to everybody’s life now a days.

As mentioned earlier segregation at source is the key of effective waste management system.

And if every household in each neighborhood understands that waste management at home is not a mere obligation but also their responsibility towards society.

And it is for the well being of your family, then a time come when our country will be a beautiful place to live and be an example for other countries.

Effective Ways of Managing Waste at Home:

From my point of view the first and foremost step that can be taken to manage waste at home is to educate each and every family member about its importance.

And that it is a responsibility of every member of the family because without doing so I don’t think one can successfully manage waste at home.

Now listed below are some of the the other ways of managing waste at home:

Say no to plastic bags

Plastic bags are nothing more than just waste, so it is best to make a habit of using cloth bags while shopping of not only grocery items but also other items like clothes, tools, vegetables, fruits etc.

Reducing trash while shopping

Doing so is difficult but by paying a little attention we can be successful. Just keep in mind to:

• Check the amount of packaging on the products you are buying and try not to buy multi layered packaged products.
• Choose packages that are recyclable.
• Purchase large packs instead of smaller one if you need more.
• Consume less of bottled beverages.

Donate old and unused items

We humans have a very bad habit of purchasing things which we haven’t used once and they are just there to fill our drawer.

It is better to donate such old and unused items to charity or needy people rather than dumping those as waste.

This will not just help you manage the waste but will also help those individuals who may be in dire need of those goods.

Handle hazardous waste properly

There are some items in our house that cannot be reuse or recycle so it is best to handle such items (paints, computers and other electronic items) carefully.

They should not be mixed with other household items and should be properly disposed of at the hazardous waste facility.

Segregation of waste

It is very important to segregate waste before disposing it. Waste can be segregated as-

• Dry waste like flowers, papers, plastic, glass, metal should be kept in separate plastic to be reused and recycled.
• Wet waste like vegetables, fruit peels, should be kept in a separate plastic as they can be used as compost
• Hazardous waste like paint, e-waste, expired medicines,tubes, used cosmetics should be kept separate and disposed of properly.

Reuse

Simply by reusing you can reduce garbage to a good extent. Listed below are some ideas of how can things be reused:

• Using the plastic bags as dustbins’
• Use the durable containers a number of times before throwing them in the garbage.
• The food grade glass containers can be used for storing the dry foods and the leftovers.

Follow the recycle policies

There are some cities who have policies regarding recycling, while other cities do not follow such policies. That’s why they suffer the aftermath.

These are some simple ways of handling waste at your home and these tricks will definitely create a lot of difference in your society and overall environment.

It’s not possible for one person to clean the whole world but if everyone takes the responsibility of managing their home waste properly, then this collective act can definitely clean the garbage of maybe not the whole world but at least your own neighborhood.

Benefits of Managing Waste at Home:

We should think once before generating and throwing away waste into landfills as this pollute the soil, water and air.

Harmful gases and toxic chemicals are produced which are released into the atmosphere causing pollution.

But by using the three R’s of waste management we can minimize this pollution.

Benefits of recycling are:

• One of the major benefits of recycling is financial income. There are many things line around us which can be recycled and we can make money from them. Such items include old furniture, old electric appliances, old clothes etc.

• Throwing away objects made of valuable resources increase the pressure on mining for me raw materials. It also wastes the energy such as fuel and other cost associated with mining.

• Recycling the objects made of valuable resources like aluminum, steel can save costly gas money and mining expenses.

• Recycling can significantly reduce the emission of harmful greenhouse gases. It can save on non reusable resources as well as water and landfill space.

• Idea of recycling is gaining significant popularity nowadays among individuals and companies which helps in creating number of jobs in the recycling industry.

• If the number of jobs will increase and environmental pollution will decrease because of recycling then it will help the nation to build a stronger economy.

Conclusion

Once an individual develops a habit of using the 3 r’s ‘Reduce, Reuse and Recycling’ of waste management, every bit of energy and resource that he/she saves will definitely make a difference in the society.

To sum up from my point of view waste management at home is the first step towards Clean India.

FAQ from answer the public: