Thursday, January 12, 2012

Is it possible to have a green family life in Singapore

At home, I am fighting a constant battle against the dustbin. It gets full immediagtely after it has been emptied and in no time.

I am also fighting a constant battle against clutter. Somehow we end up with stuff in every cranny of the house. Ofcouorse, much of it has to do with the fact that I hate throwing. Notice that this contradicts with the previous comment on full dustbins, but life seems to be full of contradictions and what is one more.


So this year, I am taking a more proactive role towards organization and clutter and green living.

Project 1 - sort out all the old clothes cluttering my cupboard and the kids' cupboard. I dont touch husband's cupboard because he has an undue attachment to all his shirts, even those he never wears.

Done.

Project 2: Sort out clothes to be recycled and to be given away

Done

Project 3: Make a rag rug

Working. I have so far incorporated into the rag rug a whole bunch of kids' clothes, a very ratty bedsheet that patti wanted to thrwo away and a number of jeans. photos will be up soon


Project 4. Reclaim the light bulb lab


Status: Working, I decided, inspired from the ultimate paper mache website to make a paper mache light bulb lab. It needs a lot of paper mache. Its still under progress, but the progress is good.

Project 5. Sort out the toys: Before I do this, I need to sign up to sg freecycle or something to give away the used toys.

Project 6. Set up a recycling bin at home to reduce the rubbish that goes to the landfill. Apparently there are recycling stations in the next block. I need to visit them with the children to toss the recyclable trash.


 Project 7: Already in place, collect vegetable peels weekly for composting. We have done this for the last three weeks and the plants are very gratefull. We collect vegetable and fruit peels and then puree them every Sunday. Then we use the mulch for the plants at their roots.

Some recycling took place when we converted the fountain into a water wall, much to the delight of Sophia. We turned out the light since Bunica called all worried about electric currents in water. 


Here is what the Oasis, as I like to call it looks like now. See the pink thing on top, its a small container with holes in it that make sure that the water from the pump flows down properly and not in a single gush. Husband recycled it from one of those long bubble blowers.



2 comments:

  1. We have Veolia (spelling?) waste services coming twice a month to collect recyclables - they drop that yellow bag. I do that or once a month we hv a recyling drive...most of it goes there too - swati

    ReplyDelete
  2. What is a recyclying drive? I dont get the waste services, and most of our recyclables go straight into the dustbin, it bleeds my heart to see it

    ReplyDelete

For your little notes and ideas