Cash in Trash

Waste has been a waste for many years and for many people in Bhutan until recently there came a technique to convert all waste to some useful components. In a green and clean country like Bhutan, waste management has been a challenging in every nook and corner of the country. Not only in urban places, even in sacred places in highland have the same problems been faced. Thimphu City alone produces about 25-30 Metric tons of waste a day which used to directly go to the only landfill site located some seven kilometers from the city.

With the increasing number of people migrating into urban areas, the problems have been increasing. With more and more people including the tourists visiting the sacred places located in some far flung areas too have been facing the same kind of problems. With more number of illiterates, the effect of improper dumping of waste everywhere was not understood. The government has been then trying to sensitize each and every people on the importance of environment conservation. Though it took quite a long time for the people to understand, in many parts of the country, people are now aware of the effects of such wastes being dumped everywhere. The people were made aware by the environment officials, health officials, and local leaders and also by their children who are educated. Despite creating such awareness through various media, the waste management is still a challenging for the concerned agencies.

Recently people learned to recycle most of the waste materials and do business out of it. Young and old started collecting and selling of all plastic bottles, glass bottles and metal pieces and made a profitable business out of it. All these recyclable materials are traded to neighboring countries to recycle. Other degradable wastes are also converted to organic fertilizers and are sold to farmers. Such initiatives have taken a waste management to next level. It has created a very lucrative business for the people and has also helped maintain clean environment. People often say “when some finds just a trash, someone find cash in trash”. This has reduced the amount of waste being driven to the landfill site.

Even after turning waste collections into a lucrative business, the problem was not completely solved. On one hand, people are trying to reduce waste but on other hand, some irresponsible people have been littering both knowingly and unknowingly. There is nothing much a government can do to make people not to litter other than educating through various media. There is also a penalty for defaulters but the problems remained the same. Unless the mind set of an individual has been changed, government can’t keep an eye at each and every individual, monitoring them. It is now high time that we as an individual have to be very responsible and develop sense of belonging. No one will ever litter their beautiful home but people never hesitate to litter outside. This world is our home and we should not litter our sweet home. Our mother earth is already facing so many challenges like climate change and desertification, all because of self-oriented anthropogenic activities. People may think, just by throwing a small sheet of paper would not make any difference, but it has to be remembered that even a big container can filled to the rim drop by drop. We have our deep respect for our parents who gave us this precious life, similarly we have to respect and love this Mother Earth who gives us everything and ask nothing form us. Therefore, we all have to see from the “cash in trash” point of view and help someone make a living out of it while helping our world live GREEN for all time to come.

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