Thank you, Jenyfer, for allowing me to visit your blog today. As part of the “Go Green, Read e” program, I’ve been part of an effort to make people more aware of what we can do to make wise use of our resources.
Although the inspiration for the program might have been to raise awareness of e-books as an alternative (note—alternative does not mean replacement!) method of reading, the concept of “green” is much broader, and covers every aspect of our lives.
Since I live in central Florida and Jenyfer lives in Cairo, we thought it might be interesting to compare some of the ways our respective countries and communities address the serious problem that there are only so many resources on the planet. And things like carbon footprints, global warming, and conservation should be dealt with on a planetary basis—we’re all in this together, after all.
Something we can all participate in: Recycling.
Terry
Recycling. Our county provides residents with two recycling bins. One is for newspaper, and recently they’ve added catalogs and magazines (at last—a way to get rid of all those mail order catalogs that show up daily). The second is for glass, cans, and plastic. At the moment, they will only accept plastics with a recycling label of “1″ or “2″, but perhaps this will expand in the future. When the program started, they took only newspaper and only specific types of plastic containers rather than anything with the correct code. (images of codes)
Jenyfer
Unfortunately, there are no formal in-home recycling programs in Cairo. Still, I do what I can: we reuse empty glass jars and plastic containers for food storage, I wash and reuse plastic zipper sandwich bags, and unneeded print outs become scrap paper for drawing. We use reusable water bottles for school lunches and have our water delivered in five gallon bottles which we trade in when they are empty, cutting down on the waste. Even our beer bottles are returnables! (I wish they still did that in the US!)
But that isn’t to say that recycling doesn’t exist in Cairo. There is a community of people called the Zabbaleen who live in the Mokattam hills. They collect about a third of the city’s garbage, take it back to their homes, and sort it for recycling. They not only recycle things like glass, aluminum, and plastic, but they also compost or feed the wet food scraps to their pigs and take cotton scraps and make things like mattress wadding, colorful rag rugs, and even quilts to sell. All in all they manage to recycle up to 80% of what they collect. No small feat in a city of nearly 20 million inhabitants!
Terry
Grocery stores have collection containers for plastic bags. More and more are encouraging customers to bring their own bags, and some even give modest rebates for doing so. So, when the bagger says, “Paper or Plastic?” your answer can be, “No, thanks” as you hand them your collection of canvas bags.
Jenyfer
If I am doing a small shop, I will tuck my purchases into my large canvas carry all. Often when I do a larger shop and request home delivery, my items arrive loose in a large cardboard box. Otherwise, I take the plastic bags that I am given and then reuse them as can liners for my small trash cans.
Terry
It used to be, any food product listed the ingredients. As we became more health conscious, the labels expanded to show nutritional analyses so we know how many calories, grams of fats, carbs, proteins, as well as sodium content and more. With more green awareness, we have another thing to consider when we look at packaging. Does it have the recycling symbol? It probably tells what percentage of the product is made of recycled materials.
Jenyfer
I prefer to buy food products with sensible packaging. Why buy something in a plastic or metal container when a simple cardboard box will do?
Terry
Some companies are getting creative. I was shopping recently, and found doormats made from recycled flip-flops.
Jenyfer
I bought a purse recently, entirely made from plastic fibers created from recycled materials! The Zabbaleen also make handmade paper for notebooks and tablets from a portion of the paper they collect.
Terry
What about electricity? Here, fluorescent light bulbs are touted as energy savers, and they’re becoming easier to find, and available in more varieties so we can replace the older incandescents in more fixtures. Remember when they were only available as long tubes, and pretty much relegated to the kitchen or garage? And now, LED is offering another alternative.
Jenyfer
I was pretty excited to see long life light bulbs available in my local grocery last time I looked. In addition, I use rechargeable batteries as much as possible, turn off lights when leaving a room, and always turn off my computers over night – an idle computer still uses a tremendous amount of energy.
Terry
Cars? Here in my neighborhood, gas is hovering around $2 a gallon. I park my little Honda Fit at the Y and it disappears amid all the bigger minivans and SUVs. It’s not unusual to see the occasional Hummer. And everyone drives. We have very limited mass transit, so rush hour traffic is inevitable. Unfortunately, the attitude seems to be, ‘if I can afford it, it’s might right to drive it.” I never saw gas-guzzlers when I visited my daughter in England, or on my trip to South Africa.
Jenyfer
Cairo is a tremendously large city and nearly everyone drive, making traffic a nightmare not to mention contributing to high levels of air pollution. My family does not currently own a car. I walk nearly everywhere I want to go. For trips further than I want to walk, taxis are plentiful and inexpensive – most trips across my section of town cost me about $1. There is also a mass transit train called the Metro with a stop near my home. I can take the train into downtown Cairo for about $0.20, arriving in less than half an hour (taking a taxi would not only cost more but I’d be stuck in traffic breathing exhaust for at least an hour)
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Those are just a few of the comparisons. Thanks again to Jenyfer for sharing this blog with me.
Terry Odell is a romance author and avid eBook reader, blogging this month for All Romance eBooks’ Go Green/Read e Campaign. Learn more about the Go Green/Read e Campaign, and to learn more about Terry, visit her website at . You can find Terry Odell’s ebooks and thousands of other eBooks on-line at All Romance Ebooks.
