You see, every morning at around 4 am, you can hear them coming: the informal trash collectors.
This awesome new video by Skrillex can give you an idea of what they do.
But in layman's terms: these are people who have no other source of income but to go through peoples' trash, find the glass, the paper and the plastics, sort them in their bags and take them to recycling centers in the area for a little bit of money to buy their daily bread. Now, you see, if I consciously recycled and took my rubbish things away from these people, I would literally be taking food out of their mouths. It's quite a huge occurrence in Johannesburg and I actually wish that our government would support these guys a little bit more - kit them out with proper tools to make the most of what they do.
I tried to be a little more sustainable by starting a compost heap in my garden, but - even when it was fenced off - my dogs would eat all the peels, egg shells, everything. They are worse than pigs. They absolutely LOVE carrot peels and potato peels, so there is no hope there. Perhaps I should invest in one of those plastic composters? But, chances are, my staffie will eat that up too.
I never leave a room without switching a light off, something my mom has drilled into me and I work in an office that recycles paper. I would say I am pretty green, hahaha.
I would love to go off the grid - my husband is constantly nagging that we must install a windmill in our garden to generate windpower. But, aren't windmills actually used to pump water? I'll have to look into that. And if the roads weren't so crazy dangerous here in Joburg, I would switch to riding my bike to work every day. Heck, anything to shed a kilo or two.
So, there are ways that I can green my life, it's about time I started implementing them, just like GreenPop is doing with its Trees for Zambia initiative. You can help green the world by buying a tree!
By clicking the image below, you can donate money for my role in
'Who Wants to be a Tree-llionaire?'
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