The 3rd episode of Trash Talk happened on Saturday 25th April at 7pm and it was not trash at all.
Talking about trash is a neverending story similar to talking about history - As long as there are humans there is history and as long as there are humans there is trash.
After a short intro about the idea behind Trash Talk by Ebin Company, namely to raise environmental awareness and knowledge about waste and recyclables, and the guest Kai Khalid bin Miethig, a German architect, very active environmental conscious resident and waste management expert of Bahrain, Namsheed raised the questions why Kai would attend so many events and social activities in Bahrain.
Answer: Where there are events - there are humans, where there are humans - there is plenty of waste, food waste mainly, but as well the gifts, bottles etc.
Hence the idea is to approach event organisers and companies to encourage them to be more environmentally conscious as events leave a big amount of waste behind, which can be drastically reduced by proper planning prior to the function or event.
Another question was raised what could be easily done for the people as a step to be more sustainable:
- a) BYOB - Bring Your Own Bags for Shopping.
Anytime you go shopping make a proper plan and keep some reusable strong bags, which you get now in many supermarkets, in your car, like 2-3 so anytime you go shopping you have some ready with you. As well as for the groceries, vegetables and fruits use the reusable nets to avoid the thousands and millions of single-use bags which end after the 5 minutes usage in the waste and hence in the landfill. - b) BYOB - Bring Your Own Bottles.
Anytime you go somewhere take your own reusable bottle with you. Aluminum or stainless steel so it can be used multiple times for several years even and imagine how many plastic bottles you will save from being disposed of.
In Bahrain, every day 6,000,000 million plastic water bottles are disposed and mainly end in the Askar landfill and are not collected for recycling.
Askar Landfill - a very nice sightseeing spot for everyone to visit since everyone contributed to this area, which you would barely spend 5 minutes there as the smell is so unbearable disgusting, but the garbage collectors spend there hours to deal with all our trash - trash from everyone. - Avoid packed items.
Buy naked/loose fruits/vegetables, and groceries. A lot of fruits comes prepacked and sealed with plastic cover. No need since nature gave the fruits and vegetables already a natural protective layer. So less packing, less waste in your house as the customer is in charge of disposal after buying all the packing waste.
Always remember: The customers pay for the content, the milk, the apples, the salad NOT for the packing. Packing is a free gift from the industry and the customer has to deal afterward with the waste. - Think before you buy.
Buy what you really need and make planning. You plan a vacation, you plan to go to a coffee shop, so plan your shopping and prepare for it, as you prepare for vacation what to pack, as you prepare what to wear for the coffee shop.
Planning and preparing the bags and containers you need are important and easy parts to play to reduce waste. - 4. Do your segregation at home.
Just separate what can be easily separated, like paper, plastic, metal/aluminum and compostable waste.
Research on the items and learn about the various materials.
For composting, you can use a big box on your balcony and a small container in your kitchen, which comes along with you, when you buy 1kg of yogurt or the big icecream containers. FoC - Free of Charge.
Once full you take it to the big one. Composting does not smell. That is a big misconception.
There are many R's for the sustainable process, not only three R's - Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle.
There are more at least 10 Rs, where recycling is the last step prior to the worst-case LANDFILL:
- 1. Rethink -
- 2. Refuse -
- 3. Reduce -
- 4. Reuse -
- 5. Re-gift -
- 6. Repair -
- 7. Repurpose -
- 8. Rent -
- 9. Rot -
- 10. Recycle
The further discussion highlighted on conscious living during these times of Corona, which leads to 2 contradicting conclusions.
On the one side, people become more conscious of their lifestyle to protect their health and create a better immune system, but conscious living means a lot more.
It includes as well as being more sustainable with our resources and reducing the waste we are producing one the other side, the extreme mass amount of usage of single-use masks and gloves, which are medical equipment needed and dedicated for professionals, dealing with the virus directly, but not for the general public.
Here multiple-use and fabric masks are sufficient, like from CSR Heroes or Bahrain4All as well handwashing is sufficient, no need for one-time-use gloves and creating a tremendous amount of additional and unnecessary waste the environment has to deal with.
Similar to the convenient single-use cutlery. Any household in Bahrain has cutlery at home, so why the order comes still with plastic cutlery.
People teach their kids to say NO, but the adults never reject or say NO to the oversupply of plastic bags at the supermarket or the not needed plastic cutlery.
WHY?
SAY NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.
REJECT and REFUSE
As another topic the BBCC was mentioned and what will happen with the butts collected.
The idea to create a stand-up paddleboard filled with the butts was proposed by a follower and in cooperation with Beach Culture, it will happen. Hopefully, launched after the summer break to have a long term impact and memory of where these 7,600 butts came from.
For the current Google generation, it is easy to do online research on the products and the ingredients, materials of various packings to ensure they are more sustainable, recyclable, or even figure out their own solutions what to do.
As well if there are any further questions, feel free to get in touch with E-Bin or Kai Miethig on Instagram.
As a conclusion, the talk could have continued and so it was decided to have one episode which will be dedicated to cigarette butts and the impact on environment and health.
In the future, the audience can send questions in advance to E-Bin so they all will be answered during the live session.
Here a list with contacts for some more information:
Ali Almuwal - Composting equipment/Worms/Soil - +973 37759444 https://www.instagram.com/alialmuwal/
Hasina Patel - Homemade organic cleaning liquids - +973 39695792
Conscious Living - B-Wax Cover - +973 33280777 https://www.instagram.com/conscious_living_bah/
E-Bin Company - Collection of Recyclables - +973 34071010 https://www.instagram.com/ebincompany/
Bahrain Association of the Parents and Friends of the Disabled - Plastic Bottle Donation in Adliya - +973 17811223
https://www.instagram.com/bapf_disabled/
