* To start a composting It is important that your scheme at home compost heap should not yourself: become a rubbish heap, therefore the pile should be kept tidy and compact. This will Create a basic enclosure also aid in retaining heat and or heap away from the moisture which is vital for house. decomposition. Keep a small airtight container in the kitchen Another reason for keeping the for scraps and empty this site tidy is to avoid problems daily into the pile. with pests as well as Each week place your neighbourhood pets. The garden and lawn construction of an enclosure clippings onto the pile. on the ground that still allows the movement of air and earthworms into the pile Include: Grass clippings, usually overcomes this kitchen wastes, fruit and problem. vegetable peelings, left over pet food, shredded prunings, For best results maintain tea leaves and bags, coffee maximum aeration. This can be grinding’s, indoor plant achieved by placing the cuttings, egg shells, manure, coarser substances at the weeds, hair, cooking oils and bottom and then building up vacuum cleaner dust. with finer materials. Avoid: Large branches, meat, In addition, mix low nitrogen fat, whole bones, plastic, waxy materials such as straw, plant material, underground sawdust, and plant cuttings stems or any diseased or with high nitrogen materials pesticide-contaminated plant such as food scraps, lawn material. Of course, glass, clippings, weeds and leaves. plastic, paper, empty batteries, chemicals, paint, and expired The decomposition will vary medicine do not belong here. with the content of the heap as The reason for avoiding well as the season, but after a diseased and contaminated couple of months the material plant material is to prevent the should be ready for use. spreading of these diseases and contaminants through your garden. 34 It is also possible to construct Some of these units are your own composting unit available at hardware stores, using a 200 litre (44 gallon) nurseries and some drum with holes cut in the department stores. The prices bottom and sides to allow for for units vary depending on the aeration. By placing a large size and model you desire. hole or door at the bottom of the drum you can have a continuous system where material is added at the top and fertilizer removed at the bottom. composting There are commercial soil improvement composting units available and garbage reduction these range from concrete, plastic or wooden boxes to plastic or metal bins with tight fitting lids. COMPOST HEAP Let worms work! Just put in the organic kitchen and garden waste. The worms, bacteria and fungi turn it to fertile soil. 35 BIN FOR OR GANI C KITCHEN WASTE 36 5. Paper Recycling Paper is produced from The pulping process uses plant material by breaking huge amounts of energy and down the fibre to produce the bleaching stage pulp. This pulp, which is produces dioxin, which is mostly derived from wood- one of the most toxic chips, is bleached using chemicals on earth. chlorine, and mixed with water. After the water is removed a matted sheet of paper remains. Present situation in Qatar We recycle virtually none of In Qatar tonnes of paper is this paper, which is dumped each year. This is significantly less than other the equivalent of millions of countries such as Japan, trees. which recycle over 50% of their overall paper. All this paper occupies large In Qatar we need to import areas of landfill and is all of our paper to satisfy our becoming a waste manage- growing demand. ment nightmare. Since the introduction of the photocopier and computer, the demand for paper has Over 70% of all school increased dramatically. This waste is paper. In fact, is contrary to what we Qatar schools produce expected when the technological revolution thousands of tonnes of began, and the so-called paper waste each year. paperless schoolroom was being promoted. 37 Unfortunately presently very By recycling paper over 40% little is recycled. The irony is of the energy used to pulp that there is a strong raw materials can be saved. international market for In fact, by not recycling your quality waste paper, with daily newspaper you are high prices being paid for wasting the equivalent used computer and energy of one cup of petrol. photocopy paper. Some suggestions for decreasing our paper demand would be: Paper recyclers are keen to collect as much high-grade quality paper as possible. This paper must be of a similar grade, clean and uncontaminated by plastic, wire, or other matter. to use both sides of Generally most paper paper; collected is recycled into reuse scrap paper for paperboard, although the note taking and high quality paper is used to recycle all paper once produce printing and writing its been used. paper. 38 Avoid recycling the following types of paper: carbon paper gummed labels sweet wrappers facial tissues waxed paper cigarette packets paper cups and plates paper towels lunch bags windowed envelopes milk or drink cartons Like all recyclable products, paper must be sorted and Paper clips and staples need not be contaminated. These not be removed as these will contaminants may vary but settle in the pulping stage of by using the following recycling the paper. guidelines most problems can be avoided. Paper packaging can also be recycled, as long as there is Recycle the following types no plastic coating or other of paper: contamination such as grease or food residues writing and photocopy paper present. Cardboard boxes bond stock (all forms) are recyclable, but need to notepaper be flattened and sorted from white envelopes other types of paper waste. binder dividers index cards or sheets The increased use of plain manilla folders plastics and waxed coatings computer printouts on many types of packaging cards reports is a major obstacle for paper writing pads and scribblers recycling, as these products telephone directories contaminate the paper and newspapers. make it worthless. 39 The collected cardboard is pressed in Qatar and sold overseas for recycling 40 Some paper collected for The production of news- recycling (usually low-grade paper from virgin material paper such as cardboard requires mechanical pulping - and newsprint) is in high which uses lots of energy. demand in other Gulf States such as the United Arab The same newspaper made Emirates. from waste paper does not require as much pulping and + Because householders do therefore saves energy. not produce sufficient amounts of waste paper, they generally do not receive Because of its low grade, it any payment for their is important to keep recyclable paper, however, newspaper separated from some environmental groups higher grades of paper, as are able to centrally collect this increases the value of and sell household paper for the higher grades and makes a profit to paper recyclers. recycling simpler. However, it is the school and office paper and cardboard packaging that is mostly There are cur- sought by the recycling rently several industry, and they are willing new recycled pa- to pay big money for it. per products on the market. For more information on the collection of paper see chapter three How to Get By supporting these you will Started. help to generate a greater demand for recycled paper and the price for all these products will decrease. At present no Qatar newspaper uses recy- cled paper, despite a In addition, by supporting these recycled products you saving of up to 60% in will be helping to conserve energy being possible our natural resources and by doing so. reduce pollution locally and globally. 41 * How far can you reduce your paper consumption in school? How far can you reuse the paper you need for school? What kind of paper can you recycle? 42 6. Recycling Glass Glass is one of our oldest Despite these benefits only manufactured products and 25% of glass is currently consists primarily of sand, recycled globally. soda ash and limestone, which is melted in a very hot Overall glass waste makes furnace to produce the vast up about 6% of Qatar array of glass products that rubbish, with each of us we now use everyday. discarding over 33 kg per year. Glass has excellent potential for being recycled: For example, the amount of sand that went into the In fact a glass bottle making of all this discarded could be recycled for- glass could fill a beach to a ever. length of 1 kilometre and to By recycling glass we a depth of 1 metre. can save over one third of the energy required to Every year in Qatar tonnes produce glass from raw of glass is dumped, materials. containing enough sand to produce millions of drink Collected used glass is bottles. This occurs mostly crushed and this is called because, unlike some other cullet. Every tonne of this countries Qatar presently cullet saves over 135 litres has few incentives to return of oil and replaces 1.2 empty bottles. tonnes of raw materials. Glass recycling using There are other benefits for crushed cullet began in the industry, such as a nineteen sixties and was reduction in stack emissions achieving good results until by 40% and increased the introduction of large furnace life due to the lower residential “big bins” or heat required to melt cullet. “mobile bins” in the early nineteen eighties. These big One of the major benefits is bins enabled people to throw that recycled glass is of out everything, including higher quality than glass recyclable goods such as made from raw materials. glass bottles & jars. 43 At one time many glass Some Gulf States, are products were reusable - considering introducing a most milk bottles were filled compulsory deposit system over 27 times, but now the where all beverage only bottles that can be containers sold must be refilled are some home returned for refilling.