Produce No Waste
Rubbish is only what you cannot reuse or recycle, and if you are smart this is not much at all! Waste that we do not reuse is pollution. The pollution is in the ground (e.g. broken glass, cans, car oil, battery acid), in the water (e.g. excess chemicals and washing powder, plastic and other rubbish), and in the air (e.g. smoke from burning, fumes from engines). All these forms of pollution are already creating big problems and will cause even bigger problems in the future if they are not corrected now. The best way to solve the problem is NOT to create the waste in the first place.
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• Use as many local products made from local materials as possible to reduce waste created. It also supports local business and local economies. • Make use of all available resources, especially natural resources. • Reuse your household waste. This reduces pollution and saves on buying new products. Water, kitchen waste, and a lot of household rubbish can all be reused. • Create integrated farm systems that reuse waste as resources within the system. • Avoid products with lots of packaging and plastic. • Avoid processed foods as much as possible. They always come in packaging, and take a lot of energy and resources to make. Remember that waste does not only occur after you buy a processed product: much more waste occurs before you buy it. • Recycle as much and as often as you can in as many creative ways as possible! Remember that all rubbish can create problems and does not just disappear if it is burnt or dumped in the river. It just changes to air or water pollution. Ocean environments, animals, and beaches all suffer because of rubbish, and then we do too.
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The best example of this is plastic bags: in the world 160,000 plastic bags are handed out every second! That is almost 10 million per minute!!! These bags take a lot of energy to make and are quickly thrown away after use, creating long lasting and damaging pollution to the land, rivers and oceans. What is the solution? Plastic can be made from vegetable waste, such as sorghum stalks, corn stalks and cobs, rice stalks, and much more. Small factories can produce them as a local business idea. More importantly, STOP USING PLASTIC BAGS! Use bags made from palm leaves, grasses, and other natural materials, and reuse the plastic bags that you have, do not just throw them away.
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SOURCE: INFORMATION SOURCED AND REPRODUCED FROM: TROPICAL PERMACULTURE GUIDE BOOK- A GIFT FROM TIMOR LESTE.
It’s a wonderful open-source practical permaculture reference guide book with 2000 beautiful illustrations and comprehensive language which enables even a beginner to understand the permaculture design, food sovereignty, and environmental regeneration strategies and techniques. The vision of this project is to make knowledge comprehensible and accessible for everyone to accelerate sustainable practices in every corner of the world. It is especially useful when working with poor, low literacy, and disadvantaged communities and schools.
This edition was developed from the Permaculture Guidebook from Timor-Leste produced in 2008 and published by Permatil (Permaculture Timor Leste-NGO). It is used by farmers, families, community groups, government departments, schools, universities, agricultural colleges, and NGOs in Timor Leste, and re-used and translated in more than 10 countries.
Please find the link below to download this book and learn more about their work on their website.