Wasted Solid Waste
By Mezemir Girma
mezemir@yahoo.com
My dear reader, please go to the Oxford Advanced Learners’ Dictionary, where you would get the following definition on waste: “materials that are no longer needed and are thrown away.” This could be the case in our town or elsewhere in Ethiopia. However, in the civilized world, waste is really more than something to be thrown away. This piece briefly covers the issue of solid waste in the places I visited so far.
Virtually in any city I visited in the last few years, I noticed how the issue of solid waste is what naturally should come in any sane person’s mind. Any one of the paths and streets are shouting for our attention. If you walk either in the streets of the capital Addis Ababa or any other town in the country, you will definitely see how waste is wasted.
Once, a German environmentalist admired Ethiopia in the national radio for her environmental protection regarding the plastic mineral water containers which we keep for further use unlike in his home country. The containers are kept for use because our farmers mostly use them to carry water, oil, and gas with. Other sorts of plastic materials such as bags are left everywhere including in the farmlands and rivers where they make the most damage. Animals eat them, children put them into their mouths and the wind takes them from place to place.
Metallic waste is left on the streets and villages. Who cares if a nail injures poor people going barefoot! Whose worry would it be if a piece of tin waste cuts the hands of an unfortunate person? I and you should care! We should worry! How I was shocked as I saw my uncle’s foot injured by a rusting nail.
In Debre Berhan University, paper waste should be a matter of crucial attention for me and you; shouldn’t it? Some foreigners I met so far use both the back and front sides of sheets of paper. Nonetheless, I and my colleagues mostly throw paper with the back unused. In addition to this, we burn the exam papers after use. Some shop owners use used paper, documents and books to wrap commodities. The fact that used newspapers from other countries are employed here burns me. Why don’t we at least read for local shop consumption? I have heard of Rwandan companies exporting the paper waste to china for reproduction.
Who do you appreciate in their care for the environment? Gash Abera Molla, Wangari Matai or yourself? It is not flattery that put you among these great people, but it is a good wish. I believe that I and you can stand one day with pride for our concern for the environment. Kaizen is the fashion of the day now; isn’t it? Using this or any other knowledge, let us at least clean our surroundings.
What do you feel to be in the midst of construction waste, electronic waste, broken glass, khat waste, worn clothes that you trample on the road and every sort of waste that people throw? Am I blaming you my colleagues? No! I am rather motivating you all to be models for our students and the community. I believe that awareness creation should come first. That is why I scribbled what you already know. Have you ever asked yourself about solid waste management in our campus? I know that it is improving at least since we have some dustbins
Management schemes implemented in Addis are really promising. The authorities arranged a program where each household pays the collectors of the waste and it is taken care of before it causes the most damage. In the condominiums of Debre Birhan also the residents pay and get rid of the waste on time. An environment clean, green and conducive for humans comes this way.
I remember people saying when people throw waste 25 meters away from their homes, it comes back home one way or the other. Burning and landfill are hazardous and bad means of removing waste. Rather we should sort out the organic and the inorganic waste. The sorted out inorganic waste will be recycled. The organic waste can be used as fertilizer after the three months it takes to rot. Inorganic waste including glass and plastic can be exported or processed locally. Sustainable waste management comes this way; job opportunities will be available; green public areas will be there for the people to spend their times at; zooming compactors and municipal trucks will take care of the waste that is collected from every home. Let us work hard and envision a country clean and beautiful!
By Mezemir Girma
mezemir@yahoo.com
My dear reader, please go to the Oxford Advanced Learners’ Dictionary, where you would get the following definition on waste: “materials that are no longer needed and are thrown away.” This could be the case in our town or elsewhere in Ethiopia. However, in the civilized world, waste is really more than something to be thrown away. This piece briefly covers the issue of solid waste in the places I visited so far.
Virtually in any city I visited in the last few years, I noticed how the issue of solid waste is what naturally should come in any sane person’s mind. Any one of the paths and streets are shouting for our attention. If you walk either in the streets of the capital Addis Ababa or any other town in the country, you will definitely see how waste is wasted.
Once, a German environmentalist admired Ethiopia in the national radio for her environmental protection regarding the plastic mineral water containers which we keep for further use unlike in his home country. The containers are kept for use because our farmers mostly use them to carry water, oil, and gas with. Other sorts of plastic materials such as bags are left everywhere including in the farmlands and rivers where they make the most damage. Animals eat them, children put them into their mouths and the wind takes them from place to place.
Metallic waste is left on the streets and villages. Who cares if a nail injures poor people going barefoot! Whose worry would it be if a piece of tin waste cuts the hands of an unfortunate person? I and you should care! We should worry! How I was shocked as I saw my uncle’s foot injured by a rusting nail.
In Debre Berhan University, paper waste should be a matter of crucial attention for me and you; shouldn’t it? Some foreigners I met so far use both the back and front sides of sheets of paper. Nonetheless, I and my colleagues mostly throw paper with the back unused. In addition to this, we burn the exam papers after use. Some shop owners use used paper, documents and books to wrap commodities. The fact that used newspapers from other countries are employed here burns me. Why don’t we at least read for local shop consumption? I have heard of Rwandan companies exporting the paper waste to china for reproduction.
Who do you appreciate in their care for the environment? Gash Abera Molla, Wangari Matai or yourself? It is not flattery that put you among these great people, but it is a good wish. I believe that I and you can stand one day with pride for our concern for the environment. Kaizen is the fashion of the day now; isn’t it? Using this or any other knowledge, let us at least clean our surroundings.
What do you feel to be in the midst of construction waste, electronic waste, broken glass, khat waste, worn clothes that you trample on the road and every sort of waste that people throw? Am I blaming you my colleagues? No! I am rather motivating you all to be models for our students and the community. I believe that awareness creation should come first. That is why I scribbled what you already know. Have you ever asked yourself about solid waste management in our campus? I know that it is improving at least since we have some dustbins
Management schemes implemented in Addis are really promising. The authorities arranged a program where each household pays the collectors of the waste and it is taken care of before it causes the most damage. In the condominiums of Debre Birhan also the residents pay and get rid of the waste on time. An environment clean, green and conducive for humans comes this way.
I remember people saying when people throw waste 25 meters away from their homes, it comes back home one way or the other. Burning and landfill are hazardous and bad means of removing waste. Rather we should sort out the organic and the inorganic waste. The sorted out inorganic waste will be recycled. The organic waste can be used as fertilizer after the three months it takes to rot. Inorganic waste including glass and plastic can be exported or processed locally. Sustainable waste management comes this way; job opportunities will be available; green public areas will be there for the people to spend their times at; zooming compactors and municipal trucks will take care of the waste that is collected from every home. Let us work hard and envision a country clean and beautiful!
ምንም አስተያየቶች የሉም:
አስተያየት ይለጥፉ