Toastmasters CC :: Project 4 – How to say it

Don’t Waste the Waste

Toastmaster of the day, fellow Toastmasters and guests.

A few years ago, I was travelling from Nagarkovil to Trivandrum in a bus. The constant humming of the bus was like buzzing of the bees and I dozed off somewhere during the journey. A little later, a horrible stench jolted me out of my slumber.

When I opened my eyes, I saw an ocean of garbage. The bus was in front of the Karamana Dump where miles and miles of land was converted into dump yard and the dump yard was brimming with activity. 

Few kids and ladies were scavenging to find the wealth out of waste. Dozens of birds, cows and dogs were busy burying their head inside innumerable plastic covers searching for a tasty dinner treat. Hundreds or probably thousands of flies & mosquitoes were gossiping and discussing about the latest addition to the dump and how easy it has become for them to spread a range of diseases. There were billions of microbes and germs too, swimming merrily in the toxic soup created by humans

I thought ‘How irresponsible are the people who dump waste like this. And then, a small but firm voice inside my head said - You are that irresponsible person.

Me! But I don’t dump waste here – But you do dump waste somewhere?

Well yes! I have to dump the waste somewhere isn’t it? Isn’t it? I ask you fellow toastmasters. With so much of waste generated in every home and the corporation not taking it away, what option do I have? And so I told the voice too. The voice now boomed in my head and said ‘Where there is a will, there is a way’

In the tussle between my mind and intellect, I know that my intellect is correct. Many of us don’t have time for breathing let alone thinking about the waste. Or maybe think about it but don’t care enough to do anything about it. Let’s dig deeper into this garbage and checkout what we get.

The waste generated in our home could be broadly classified as Wet waste and dry waste. About 95% of time, the wet waste is the food refuse, generally in the form of vegetables or fruits scrapes, leftover or spoiled food and items which has been dead since a long time – that is it has gone beyond its expiry date. We can cover it all in a plastic cover and throw on road when no one is looking or we can dispose it properly. All it needs is one conscious thought. One such method of properly disposing is composting which has been around since time immemorial. All these food, with a few exceptions can be composted. You can create composters using plastic bins, wooden cages or like what I have done-using terracotta pots.

All I do is dump food waste inside the composter and churn it once a week. Nature works on its own inside the composters and gives me compost every 4 months. This is nutrient rich organic matter that you could use for gardening but if nothing, throw it away, it will still nourish the earth. We've been living in our present house for the past 5 years now and till now, we haven’t thrown one bit of wet waste outside. Well, I dump the waste but in the composter and not on road or dump yard, and this is what I call, the smart dumping.

Congratulations! If you've taken care of wet waste, you've tackled about 60% of waste generated in your house. The rest 40% is the dry waste. Out of these, 20% are reusable and recyclable, 10% is toxic and the remaining 10% is refuse.

We are privileged and blessed to have such a good life that we have things to throw away! But be considerate about others. Donate your old books, cloths, toys, equipment which are in good conditions, to those in needy.

Wear your crazy, creative caps and reuse those old t-shirts or dresses to make something else like rugs or wipes. Convert plastic bottles into pretty planters and plant some plants.

For the rest of the things, make the waste collector you best friend who will clear your home of clutter like newspaper, plastic or glass bottles, tin or metal scrapes. And if you are in good terms with them, they will whisk away some mess like broken footwear or non-categorized scrapes.

We also produce some toxic waste from our house when we use certain necessary evils like medicines, batteries, paints, even electronics equipments. Be smarter about waste here. Don’t buy extra medicines or paints so that we don’t have to throw away extras and buy rechargeable batteries so that we don’t have to throw them at all. Dispose e-waste in specialized agencies only.

We are down to the last 10% and anything and everything, not covered in the above categories fall in here. Normally the refuse are small bits of paper, plastic, bits of rubber, hair, nails or sanitary refuse are left. It is tolerable to incinerate these waste or provide this to corporations or landfill but only till we find a solution to this too.

I would like to mention about Lauren Singer here. Have you heard about her? She is 29 years old and lives in New York City. She made a conscious decision to live waste free life about 4 years back and she has reduced the waste output so much that four years’ worth waste of her trash fits into a jam jar. If she can, we can too.

Remember, waste is not the waste. Only the waste which is wasted is a waste. So don’t waste the waste.

Toastmasters CC :: Project 3 – Get to the Point

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Water Water Everywhere

And all the boards did shrink

Water water everywhere

Nor a drop to drink.

Toastmaster of the day, fellow Toastmasters and guests.

These words are from the famous poem ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ written by Samuel Taylor. It talks about the harrowing experience of a sailor who has returned from a very long sea voyage. The sailor was thirsty, stranded in the ocean with millions of gallons of water all around but sadly, not a drop to drink.

Imagine, you are stranded in the sea, thirsty but not a drop to drink. Such a sad picture! But wait a minute, you don’t have to be stranded in the sea to be in this miserable situation. Imagine yourself in your own house, 50 years from now because the manner in which we are handling our water resources will make it a precious and limited commodity. So limited and valuable that countries will be fighting for water and not for religion or petroleum.

In fact, if we do not mend our ways, it is enough to wipe the human civilization. Does that sounds too far-fetched? Let me give you an example. The Sindu-Saraswati civilization which flourished during 3000-1700 BC vanished with the drying up of Sarasvati River. Though researchers are debating on many possible reasons, the drying up of major water resource is considered to be the top culprit.

Water pollution is a global problem. There might be many things which the Govt., the municipality or the resident’s association could do. But when we point one finger towards someone, the other 3 points back at us so let’s look into the damage we cause and at least one tip for the damage control we can do.

The problem could be broadly classified into - Pollution of water bodies, depleting groundwater and wastage of available water resources.

But I don’t pollute the water bodies. I do not dump anything in the river or pond. Really! Let’s see, have you ever thrown waste or garbage on the ground? Chances are high that they are washed by rainfall into drains and making their way into river/lake or pond and eventually into ocean. So what can I do? Simply stop dumping waste. Be smarter about the garbage. Segregate the waste and dispose it properly and responsibly.

Groundwater Depletion is a bigger issue. What the eyes cannot see, the heart doesn’t grieve over. One cannot easily predict the state of the groundwater table and thus it makes the situation tough. The oil, gasoline, and other pollutants could easily leach and pollute the groundwater. There’s more – Let’s assume that the groundwater resource in location A gets contaminated. Because we cannot see the connection between location A and location B, there are high chances that groundwater at location B gets contaminated as well. Strangely, even if there is no direct connection between these two points, the water can still seep through permeable surfaces and soil to affect the water at location B.

What can we do to prevent this? Again, be smarter about the waste. Certain types of waste like medicines and batteries when in contact with water can leak and easily pollute the water. We sometimes don’t have proper ways of disposing these wastes. Buy medicines responsibly so that you don’t have to throw it. And for the Batteries, the answer is simple – find an alternative. Do not buy the normal throw away battery. Buy the rechargeable ones. Its costly yes, but it’s a one-time investment.

Assuming that a person uses 2 batteries a month. That makes 24 a year. If the 20 people sitting in this room decide to buy the rechargeable ones, we save about 500 batteries from filling the landfill which is quite a good number

And this brings me to the final point of today’s talk – Avoid wastage of water resources. Look around in your surroundings – Do you see any tap left unattended, close it. Is a tap leaking, repair it. Fool the flush by sinking in a stone which will reduce the water in the Flush tank. We don’t need so much of water to flush. Don’t open water tap to its complete power just to wash your hands – research’s show that about 50% of water that is wasted is actually untouched.

Store the discarded soapy water from washing machine and use it as a first base to wash your bathroom, terrace or car. The water used to boil eggs or potatoes could be used to water the plants. The water used to wash vegetables could be used as first rinse for used utensils.

These tips are small but effective, easy but mighty. Small steps are like little droplets of water which starts as a drizzle but gets converted to torrential rains. Remember, it is the little drops of water that make the mighty ocean.

Toastmasters CC :: Project 2 – Organise your Speech

AMBER

It was a dark stormy night. The clouds were rolling in and it had started to rain. The deep rumbling of the dark clouds confirmed the incoming thunderstorm. What would you do on such a night? <Question to Audience> Quite interesting, but do you know what he did he do? He, was out there, in that dark stormy night, flying a kite!

Fellow Toastmaster, it was 15 June 1752 when Benjamin Franklin did his famous kite flying experiment in Pennsylvania. He was thus credited as the inventor of electricity. Contrary to what you might think, he, was not the inventor. In fact nobody was. Electricity was discovered. Its history dates back to 600 BC when the ancient Greeks found that if you rub a piece of Amber, you could attract small bits of paper. It is nothing but static electricity as we call it today.

The journey has begun with a humble amber. The word Amber in Greek was translated to the word electricity in English by William Gilbert in 1600s and since then, there has been an inexorable chain of events, discoveries and inventions which has paved the way of the modern day electricity. We owe, this privilege to have an electrified life to these great people. I cannot help but mention a few like Otto Vann, William Watson, Alexander Volta, and of course Thomas Alva Edison, whose invention of electric bulb bought electricity to our household and sure enough, household is the biggest consumer of electricity.

Imagine just one day in your life without electricity. It’s tough isn’t it? That’s because this privilege has become a necessity today and we are dependent on it. Round the clock. From the moment we get up till we go back to sleep. In fact, even while we are sleeping. Being the biggest consumer of electricity, the household is sadly the most wasteful and pollution causing too. In today’s speech we will see how we cause this pollution and ways to prevent it. Now, how do we cause pollution by merely using electricity? When you plug in your charger, it does not smoke, it does not create any harmful gases so how do you cause pollution.

On an average, a medium size house does more pollution than what a car or a bike does and it does so, at the power plant where fossil fuels like Coal, natural oil and gases are burned to generate electricity. Fossil fuels or non-renewable sources of energy as they are popularly called, take millions of years to be formed. Once they are burned, Poof! They are gone forever. They are burned in order to generate electricity but with that, they also generate a lot of by product which can cause global warming, irreversible damage to delicate ecosystem like tundra, coral reefs and mangroves, extinction of endemic species, rapid spreading of diseases, powerful heat waves and tornados, recurring draught and flood so on and so forth.

What can we do to prevent this? Can we stop the generation of electricity? No, that will not be possible. Alternative ways to generate electricity like Wind energy, hydro energy, nuclear energy and solar energy are considered and used too. But still, the majority of electricity generation is done using burning of fossil fuels.

Let’s look at an option that we have in our hand. Can we save electricity? The conservation of electricity is far simpler but let’s look at it by first changing our attitude towards it. When I had once switched off my colleagues computer monitor, he asked me - why are you bothered about it? What bit will you save by it and anyways, the company pays for it. Fellow Toastmasters, it’s high time now that we start realizing the ways in which we are damaging our environment. And by the way, every bit counts.

In short, I would like to outline 3 methods of saving electricity which you can remember using the Acronym SEA. Save-Exchange-Avoid.

About saving electricity, I’m sure that I need not tell you that you should switch off all the lights fan and AC when not in use, ensure that the room is completely closed before switching to the AC, should not put hot food in refrigerator. Simple thigs like shutting down the water while brushing your teeth and taking a shorter shower will help as electricity is required to pump water to the tank. These are things we teach our kids at school but quite honestly, do we do it?

For the exchange part, we can replace our normal bulbs with CFL or LED, exchange the old TV, refrigerator and washing machine with a newer energy efficient one. Replace normal geyser with a solar one which itself will bring down the cost drastically.

But what is better than to avoid high usage of electricity? Try using fan instead of AC whenever possible. Rearrange furniture around your house so as to allow maximum daylight to pour in. Plant more trees around your home which will bring down the temperature and hence the cooling cost.  

So you see, with so many tips, tricks and alternatives, it’s after all not very difficult to save electricity. Many activities and speeches have already delineated this topic. Some motivated the audience while other failed to meet its objective.

Did I meet the objectives of today’s speech? In literal sense, my evaluator here is the best person to tell me that but in deeper sense, I will achieve my objective if at least one person sitting in this room will think about what I have said today. If you will think about switching off your monitor today. If you will consider to use the staircase instead of the elevator just to climb up or down a couple of floors.

Remember SEA à Save-Exchange-Avoid. Let’s make this as our common goal and help each other to achieve it.

Over to the Toastmaster of the day.