So just this morning, I turned on the television and sat on the couch for one whole hour watching National Geographic. The show I caught was entitled Taiwan to the World: Trash to Treasure.
Taipei 101
The episode contains two stories that use trash and make them into a treasure. One was using recycled plastic bottles to make a sail boat and the other was the Taipei 101 aiming to be the world’s tallest green building. Of course, this is already old news to most people, but I still wanted to share it with everyone.
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED for short is a system that helps building owners and operators measure their building’s practicality and ‘green-ness’ in their design, construction, operations and maintenance. Read more about how they rate buildings here at the U.S. Green Building Council website.
They have a Green building, so what?
Earth is, so far, the only planet that has life. With the advancements in technology and the daily needs of every person in this small planet, we’re slowly killing our only place for living.
I know I also contribute to these wastes but watching this show made me realize that there are people out there who are trying to make the world a better place but what are the rest of the world doing? What am I doing?
Let’s Go Green!
It’s a cheesy tag line but it’s simple.
The three R’s: reduce, reuse and recycle.
SM Malls Eco Bags
Reduce using plastic bags when you go shopping, bring one of those eco-bags that some malls give or sell. It’s reduces the number of plastic bags we throw out.
If you do already have plastic bags, reuse them at home. Don’t throw them away at once. Use them as garbage bags, or give them to recycling factories.
Recycle. Paper, plastic, computers – almost everything can be recycled now.
In the NatGeo show featuring those who made a boat out of recycled plastic bottles, they used rice husks mixed with recycled plastic to make their boat’s flooring. For the hull of the ship, they used advertisement tarpaulins. Things like these can be reused and recycled. We just have to know how. Even old gadgets can be broken down to pieces to get the minerals used to create them!
Another story that uses trash to create treasures is from the idea behind Rags2Riches. I learned of this company last year when I attended a leadership seminar at another university. The founder and president of the company, Reese Fernandez, created opportunities for women living in the slums here in the Philippines to create high fashion accessories from scrap cloths and organic materials.
Here’s a video about the story of Rags2Riches:
What can we do to help in making the world a cleaner place to live in?
Shout ‘em out in the comments.
