Featured Writers
Jill Buck is the Founder and Executive Director of the Go Green Initiative and is also the owner of Buck Consulting. Jill lives with her family in Pleasanton, California. Full Bio
Household Waste: Do we have it easy!
By: Doug Cassaro
I received an e-mail earlier this week about Public Radio’s Trash Challenge. To quote, “Tess Vigeland, host of Marketplace Money, the weekend personal finance program produced and distributed by American Public Media, has issued a "trash challenge" that calls on listeners to join her pursuit of "zero waste to landfill." For two weeks beginning September 15, Vigeland will carry her trash everywhere as she seeks to reduce her waste production significantly.” I plan to read her online journal to see how she fares in her “zero waste” effort. If you would like to follow her journey it can be found by clicking "Sustainability" on the Marketplace Money Web site at www.marketplace.org.
Her “challenge” struck me as such a unique idea but as I thought about it some more it hit me, in many countries they don’t have the waste management services that we do. Many people take this challenge everyday when figuring out how to get rid of, or in most cases, reuse the items of what we would consider “trash”. Some countries just pile it in their streets and let it rot, others burn it, not bothering to find out whether or not it could be harmful to the environment. And others dump it in their waterways, thereby making the water undrinkable. Here at the GGI we have partnered with a group in Uganda to try to help them in the environmental education of children. We want the children to know that they have other options. To find out more about our efforts, go to http://gogreeninitiative.org/content/Press/UgandaEnviromentalEffort.html.