Мы строим деревню / we are building ecovillage: куда делся мусор

Where did the garbage go?

vladvic 24.11.13 в 20:21

There is no garbage not where people don’t litter,

Yanne 15.03.14 в 05:05

But where is a street cleaner with a gun.

Yanne 15.03.14 в 05:05

Folklore

Yanne 15.03.14 в 05:01

It has emerged that we produce an enormous quantity of litter. I have never thought about it before. And people around me are also not in the know. And the litter disappears in the minute we stop seeing it. We empty the waste bin into the darkness of the refuse chute and all litter with crash flies down the tube. Silence settled over you. The litter disappears from your worldview. We think that if we discard rubbish in the special place it doesn’t litter the nature. But what is the reality?

Yanne 15.03.14 в 05:31

From the refuse chute the litter is send to the dumpster in the yard, then the dumptruck comes and the litter goes to the ” solid domestic waste landfill”, in other words to the dumping site. There it lies in one big stinking mountain. Very long time. Because a great amount of rubbish that we produce decomposes very slowly.

Yanne 15.03.14 в 14:40

When we moved to the ecovillage we faced with litter problem face to face. Because since that period the responsibility for litter has fully weighed on our conscience. First of all we agree upon the prohibition about burning of plastic on the territory of ecovillage. The second thing is sorting. We started to divide all garbage for four parts:

Yanne 15.03.14 в 14:50

1. organic matter (it goes to the compost);

Yanne 15.03.14 в 14:51

2. matter which burns without danger: paper and tins (we made special place for burning and created an improvised furnace from the piece of galvanized sheet - the pipe covered by the lid. The furnace is filled up from above, and after the filling sets afire through the opening from below. After the burning tins are flatten and dug into the ground. When they are burnt they decompose quite fast);

Yanne 15.03.14 в 15:10

3. plastic (for the time present we decided to take out it because we have no thought what to do with it in the village). We transport postconsumer plastics to the regional centre dump;

Yanne 15.03.14 в 15:28

4. batteries. They demand special utilization. We transport them into the special city receiving points.

Yanne 15.03.14 в 15:32

But it emerged that it was not enough. Still there was a lot of litter. It turns out that the practice of a primordial decrease of potential litter use is very important. Basically it is happened on the purchase stage.

Yanne 15.03.14 в 15:55

It is not simple for modern human to stop making purchases. It is difficult nowadays to find products that are not packed up with plastic. But nevertheless we are trying to do so.

Yanne 15.03.14 в 15:57

I wrote this to help people who go shopping:

Yanne 15.03.14 в 15:59

***

Yanne 15.03.14 в 05:03

The instruction for the “green” buyer or how to decrease the amount of litter?

Yanne 15.03.14 в 16:00

Remember, that the most important thing in the “rubbish problem” is to stop using stuff which can not be used further.

Yanne 25.03.14 в 12:55

1. Before you go to the shop take care of the bag, string-bag, rucksack or of something like that, for not to take the plastic bag for purchases at the checkout lane.

Yanne 25.03.14 в 13:16

2. The big packing gives less rubbish, than the little one (it is better to buy one bag of 50 kg, than ten bags of 5 kg or all the more 100 bags of 500 grams).

Yanne 25.03.14 в 13:49

Nowadays it is considered to be a good service when the seller tries to pack everything that can be packed. This service is not obligatory. You can and should refuse excessive packing, apart from the cases when it is really necessary (for example if we buy raw fish and put it into the bag without a pack it will give a bad smell to the other products).

Yanne 25.03.14 в 15:08

Many sellers insist on packing thinking that in this case they care for the buyer. The frequent argument here is that suggested packs are “free of charged”. But you’d better refuse, you can leave the things that you don’t require.

Yanne 28.03.14 в 10:27

4. Choose the products, which are packed in paper wrapper or in the other one which is simple to utilize: for example eggs can be in a plastic flat and in paper one. It is better to choose the second variant. Also you can buy the juice in glass jar rather than in the cardboard pack.

Yanne 28.03.14 в 10:39

5. Earlier it was normal to use plastic bags several times. Today there are many jokes that at one time Russian housewives washed plastic bags and hung them out to dry. But this is a good practice, nothing shameful in it: pick out some good thick bags and carry them with you, when you go shopping it lets you to decrease the quantity of new bags, which you bring from the shop.

Yanne 28.03.14 в 10:58

6. Try buying products without packing at all, for example from the private industry - these products frequently have higher quality. It is better to buy tasty natural milk in the countryside in the 3 litre jar than to buy more expensive, tasteless, made from the powder one in the shop and get three plastick bags as a present, which soon will go to the dump.

Yanne 29.03.14 в 08:14

7. Choosing the product in the shop think at once how its pack could be reused: for example from the kefir cardboard pack the cup for some sprouts can be made. From two similar product you should choose that one, the pack of which can be reused.

Yanne 29.03.14 в 08:34

8. Choose simple and cheap products, often they contain less useless wrapping and are much more wholesome and fresher (for example expensive sweets in the box have a lot of wrapping and few sweets, and simple sweets bought by weight contain more sweets than the wrapping).

Yanne 29.03.14 в 08:56

9. Instead of buying some products (which at the same time are sold in the useless package), think about how you can cook it by yourselves. For example you can easily cook tasty, cheap and wholesome mayonnaise from simple products, which are in many kitchens.

Yanne 29.03.14 в 12:34

10. The peculiarities of some products buying:

Yanne 25.03.14 в 13:18

Cereals. Practically in all big shops there are cereals sold by weight. You can come with your own bag and pour in the necessary amount. It is very convenient.

Yanne 29.03.14 в 12:35

Fruits and vegetables. It is not necessarily to wrap them into a pack in supermarkets. For example while buying apples you can just weigh them on the scales, get the bar-code and stick it to one of the apples without the pack. Then explain at cashdesk that you don’t take plastic bags. For example I simply tell that I live in mountains and “don’t know where to put plastic after use”. You can also put apples into your own prepared bag and stick the bar-code with the price on it.

Yanne 31.03.14 в 06:03

Vegetable oil. The best variant is to find the place where this oil is produced and sold “on tap” to the buyers container. Or simply to buy 5 litres jerricans instead of buying litre bottles.

Yanne 25.03.14 в 15:15

Bread. Choose simple fresh bread without a packing.

Yanne 25.03.14 в 15:09

***

Yanne 15.03.14 в 05:03

So, we started to go to the shop in a right way and began bringing less rubbish to the house. We reduce the quantity of plastic. But it was not enough.

Yanne 29.03.14 в 12:37

The preparation of the rubbish to the utilization became the second stage. We began reducing its volume due to decomposition and pressing.

Yanne 29.03.14 в 12:39

The third thing which for the time present we just investigate is a pyrolysis furnace. It is said that there are safe ways of plastic waste burning, but we have not checked it in practice yet.

Yanne 31.03.14 в 05:55