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Gaurav Gupta

Director - Finance and Operations, Skillment Edu Private Limited

TEDCRED 500+
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Do you have a small idea to make this world Green? Mention if you already use it.

My big greening idea is really small. I want to help households in reducing its carbon footprint. Simply by using more efficient lighting, cooling and windows. Budget all of this from ones annual energy spend.

The small acts I use to have a greener presence is to recycle every scrap of paper, even envelops that come in post.

Plus, I never travel to a place if the work can be done over the internet, like banking / shopping / meetings.

Curious for more small ideas that can have a large impact.

Topics: Development Green Green Accounting Green Economy climate change green energy green living
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    R H 20+

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    May 31 2012: I try to eat locally grown foods as much as possible, not only for their organic content and local economic benefit, but also to cut down on transportation. I try to eat healthy foods and not drink or smoke too much so I stay healthy and stay out of hospitals and not contribute to pharmaceutical waste and medical economic exploitation. I ride my bicycle or walk as much as possible - i get exercise and enjoy it too. I play a sport (golf) that doesn't use petroleum fuel to enjoy, or kill wildlife (although there is much debate in golf about pesticides and land use). The community I live in has a recycling program and I participate. I dispose of all household (and car) waste in proper recepticles. And I live in a very small home and don't consume alot of utilities. These are some of the day-to-day things I think about and do.
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      Gaurav Gupta 500+

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      Jun 2 2012: R H, Could you please tell me more about the community recycling program.

      In India we have private recycling agents, these are really mom and pop size operations, they would collect recyclable waste (but this would be durable consumer goods or old newspapers etc), and pay a price to the household by weight.

      Through a hub and spoke model this reaches factories in some way. However, there is no control on how this waste is handled. Which is a big area of concern, still the net result is worth applauding.

      I want to understand how does the community recycling system works. Please help!
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        R H 20+

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        Jun 3 2012: I must get more details for you. Will advise...
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        R H 20+

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        Jun 4 2012: Alright, I have some details for you: I called our community public works dept and this is what I was told: We have two different color coded recepticles for trash, 0ne is for general trash (the bigger dumpster) and the other(s) for recyclables. We contract out garbage removal services to a private company. They pick up the waste and the reclyclables in separate areas in the truck that removes them and takes them to a dump, for the gargbage, and processing area for the recyclables which are then sorted into the various grades of recyclability. These sorted recyclables are then transported/sold/picked-up to a processing plant which converts the recyclables into raw material, which is then used/sold. Some communities have their own 'in-house' systems, but we contract ours out. There is an international association that has much information and is very open to sharing. The website is: http://www.swana.org
        Thank you for inquiring. I now know how it works too! Good luck with your new venture.

        • peter stonebridge

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          Jun 9 2012: RH Every council in Australia has reversed you bin selection, The small one is for weekly rubbish and the large one of for fortnightly recycling. it works well.
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      Gaurav Gupta 500+

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      Jun 2 2012: About household waste recycling, we had a great idea presented by a bureaucrat from Andhra Pradesh during TED@Bangalore last month.

      They have a system in which waste is collected from households every morning, by hand pulled carts and it is separated into colored bins, recyclable and composting waste, right at the time that it is collected.

      Again, this cart meets a bigger truck, that meets a bigger truck capable of carrying 30 Tonnes of waste. At the dumping site, they place the waste in composting heaps rather than just dump them.

      The recyclable waste never reaches a dumping site, it leaves for processing plants right after collection.

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