Is that really only 51 things that we can do to save the environment? It is really an odd question as why must it be 51 and not other numbers? To me, there should be more than 51 things to do in order to combat the great mission to save the Mother Nature.

I have particularly glanced through all of the entire list of 51 things that can be done to save the environment. Even so, it is despairingly that most of the things mentioned are only applicable in the United States of America and not locally feasible in my home country, Malaysia. As a matter of fact, I would like to draw the attention to the things that which is practicable to be put in practice, culturally in Malaysia. And to my surprise, there are about 21 things that I can do to save the planet Earth in my home country.

Even so, it is not easy to pick and match which things I can do the best for the environment. I have come about to list a few things that I think it is necessary to bring about for discussion.

First and foremost, I would like to talk of the change of light-bulbs. Everyone uses electricity in the daily life, regardless at home or in the workplace. Even so, not many of us are aware that by changing the light-bulbs could make a change to the environment. Basically, the typical type of light-bulbs that often use at home and workplace is the compact fluorescent light-bulb (CFL). CFLs have come a long way since they were first introduced in the middle of 1990s. The change of CFLs to a more environmental cost benefits light-emitting diodes or better known to be LEDs could save the consumption of electrical energy. LEDs work great as task lights often occupying our desk and floor lamps at home. Not only could that, by changing the hottest CFL electrical bulbs to LED, it helps household energy savings yet it can last several years longer. 

It is also good to know that each CFL bulb may contains 5 mg of mercury, which can be hazardous to human health. Proper disposal of light-bulbs is very important as it may cause leaking of heavy metals in the aquifer as most of our unused and damaged bulbs are discarded to the landfills.

Next, I would like to touch on the idea of paying bills online. The culture of online payments is not something new. It has started ever since the advancement of ICT with major international banking institutions in the early 20?s. By practicing the new form of online banking, it actually helps to eliminate the massive manufacturing growth of papers in the society. Being likely or unlikely, it has seriously given an indirect impact of saving trees when we are practicing a paperless communication of trading online in the internet. By doing so, the subsequent chain of fuel consumption by the trucks and planes for transportation purposes in paper productions are reduced as well. It is expected that if every one of us in Malaysia would viewed and paid our bills online, the percentage of solid waste generation and greenhouse-gas emissions due to logging in the country will reduce drastically. Nonetheless, the problems of cybercrime and internet security would lead to another chamber of hinder in the use of online payment.

Saying no to plastic bags have been a controversial debate, especially in the diehard environmentalists and the manufacturers of plastic industry. Plastic bags often have the similar divisive issues related to the usage of polystyrene. Both plastic bags and polystyrene are categorized as the dirty invention that people commonly use in their daily life and able to impose danger to health problems for a perpetual long term usage. There are campaigns here and then about fighting to the elimination usage of plastic bags in their community as well as society. By and large, the overall battle towards zero-consumption is plastic bags and polystyrene are indeed inevitable. Plastics and polystyrene often come in various forms and shapes in our daily routine. We are vigorously bound of using plastic from the early morning, we wake up to brush of teeth where the toothbrush is made of plastic and up to the night, we are sleeping on the bed which is also made of plastic or perhaps sub-plastic materials. It is not easy to run away from the necessity use of plastic as one of the core material in the product manufacturing world. Anyhow, the struggle towards zero-plastic or zero-polystyrene society will definitely leave as a remarkable and noble record in the environmental history.

Despite that, I am not trying to bring the idea that I am being disagreed with the movement of absolute elimination of plastic and polystyrene in the neighborhood. To me, it is not culturally achievable as we are very much inclined towards the use of plastic and polystyrene. Nevertheless, I am also stunned about the consumption rate of plastic in the world which was in an extremely overwhelming condition. The most conventional plastic that we used is nothing rather than the evil creation of plastic bag. We often receive plastic bags from supermarket, shopping malls, etc. and eventually most of the plastics bags ended up in the landfills as waste. Every year, more than 500 billion plastic bags are distributed, and less than 3% of those bags are recycled. Just to share another interesting fact where the typical plastic bag is commonly made of polyethylene and can take up to 1,000 years to biodegrade in a landfill which also able to emit harmful greenhouse gases to the environment. Hence, by reducing the contribution to plastic bag is as simple as changing the alternative use of a cloth bag.

There is also a successful story of plastic bags elimination which is happening in the Pearl of the Orient, Penang. The banning of plastic bag usage was the initiative by the local state government. Initially, it was implemented that there is no plastic bag on weekends, which applied to all hypermarkets and shopping malls. And subsequently, it moves to weekdays and finally it is an absolute ban of giving out free plastic bag in Penang. A small fee of twenty cents will be charged on consumer upon every plastic bag used when they are shopping to purchase items. The charge applies to all hypermarkets, supermarkets, departmental stores, pharmacies, fast food restaurants and convenience stores, including those at petrol stations in the Penang state. Mini markets and single-owned businesses will also have to comply with the state directive to stop giving out free plastic bags to the consumers in the town. It can be really seen that with the banning of plastic bags it helps to reduce the manufacturing rate of plastic bags in Penang.

And of course, there are also many other things that we can do for the environment. One of it that I would like to emphasize here is the last thing in the list, which encourage people to consume less, share more and live simply. The final article, simply explains that we need to be contented and live in a simplicity life. By the meaning of consuming less, it is also referring to the generation of waste in our community. None of us can escape from generating waste. And where do you think all the garbage that we generated goes to? Does such a question ever cross our mind? Or it is just a question that nobody cares about.

As according to Malaysia National Solid Waste Management Department (JPSPN), about 90% of all our Malaysian municipal solid wastes are being disposed at the landfills. About 5% is burned and only 5% is recycled or reused. This is definitely a sad case to talk about where other countries like Japan recycled and reused their wastes up to 30%. Inevitably, we have to accept that our municipal solid waste is one of the three major environmental problems happening in Malaysia. And as for now, there are over 23,000 tons of waste is produced each day in our country. However, this amount is expected to rise to 30,000 tons per day by the year 2020. The amount of waste generated continues to increase due to the increasing population and development despite of the massive amount and complexity of waste produced. In short, the standards of waste management system in Malaysia are still very weak. But then again, we could not just rely on reducing waste generation as our only source to save the environment. And on the last point as per mentioned in the article, we need to share more and live simply. It might sound easy, but indeed very abstract. The last phrase of live simply supports us to meditate, always reflect upon ourselves and always have a modestly mindful lifetime.

In a nutshell, there are a lot more we can do to help the environment. The bottom-line of our current environmental problems is not about what we can do to help the environment, but are we willing to make a change for our grandchildren?s future.

(The original concept note of 51 Things We Can Do to Save the Environment is a global warming related articles which can be assessed at http://www.bkprn.org/dokumen/the_file/The_Global_Warming_Survival_Guide.pdf )

Photo credit :www.nbp.org