MY ECO- FRIENDLY BIRTHDAY PARTY

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This week we had a Birthday Party at home. I was thinking Vile Parle has a population of is approximately one and half lakh persons. About 10 percent of this being children under 6 years. So, about 15000 birthdays are celebrated every year. The cost of birthday party in a restaurant or party hall works out to be about 25000 rupees (minimum, it can go upto 75000) per birthday. That is parlekars spend about 3.75 crores on birthdays of under 6s every year.

Now if these parties are done at home, to save money, then the major environment impact is through the use of plates and cutlery. If household steel stuff is used, the water used to wash them will be phenomenal 3.7 lakh litres to wash the plates alone. (I am not going into the comparative carbon and water foot print of paper vs steel plates now, more about that in another post later.) The other option is disposables. Each party consisting of at least 25 people- it means about 30 plates, 30 spoons and 60 glasses. This means 4.5 lakh plates, 4.5 lakh spoons and 9 lakh glasses or cups. All these will be sent to landfill if the material is neither recyclable nor compostable. Another source of trash (non recyclable noncompostible material) is cheap decorations...made of plastic, shiny foil, thermocoal (HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU TORANS) and Styrofoam. All these will go to landfill.

 I did not want to add to this dismal statistic while I enjoyed myself. After all Birthday Party is for ‘Tum Jiyo Hazaro Saal’ and I don’t want to condemn that life as a life on a polluted planet. So I made sure that my party was eco- friendly- means both economically and environmentally. This is what I did-

1. Economics- Had birthday party at home and invited only those who meant something to the Birthday boy. No parents, none of my friends or relatives (just to earn social brownie points). SAVED on Hotel charges, travel, taxes, DJ. I was the party ‘host’ and that money was saved.

2. Menu- the aim was to have a process with least impacts and leftovers. I chose to order in- cooking in larger batches saves fuel. I ordered kid’s favourites....so they eat well. I discussed quantities with the caterer to make sure we did not order extra. I got large 2 l bottles of soft drink.....bottles will be used in gardening later.

3. Invitees- Sent personal invites and got confirmed RSVPs so that exact numbers of attendees could be determined....again to avoid wastage

4. Decorations- I used only paper decorations—that went to recycling or compost. Pure latex balloons are luckily easily available in Parle East and they will get into compost bin. Music played with closed windows at moderate volumes to avoid noise pollution. And used natural vapouriser to keep mosquitoes away

5. Cutlery- I got sugarcane and wheat fibre plates....these are easier to home compost than the areca plates which need shredding. But areca leaf spoons as edible spoons are not available in Parle now. Paper cups for juice and water. Half went to recycling and half I retained for making seed starting cups in my garden. Tissues could go into compost bin. I was thinking of labelling the glasses with the kids’ names to facilitate reuse, but I forgot about it. The cost was only about 10 pc higher than the Styrofoam cutlery...already I had saved that much. I used ordinary corelle bowls for serving.

6. Games and activities- We looked up the net and chose group games requiring no props. The kids were very sporting and joined in heartily....lots of fun.

7. Return gifts- Got plastic water bottles that can be cleaned with hot water...much more eco friendly than soap. Wrapped them in kite paper....easily compostable.

8. Gifts- I was happy to discover that invitees turned out to be as thought ful...no duplications. And all gifts were exciting, usable...no cheap china stuff. And that made them eco- friendly

9. Cleaning up- We had minimal left overs. We cleaned up immediately after party in half hour’s time. It was 10 mins job to cut up the cutlery with scissors and put them into my bokashi bin and compost pile. Food containers went into recycling, Ballons into bokashi bin.

No sign of yesterday’s party except for the Happy Faces! Money saved- 75%. Environment impact- minimal. Effort- Minimal. Enjoyment- Full.

Money saved goes into the youngster’s account and awaiting the Birthday compost to get ready!

TREES and COMPOSTING IN AIRPORT COLONY

When we tell people about home composting as part of Swacch Parle Abhiyaan, we tell them to start first with composting of floral offerings (nirmalya). 2- 3 times I was told about larger scale nirmalya composting happening at Airport Colony across the main suburb of Vile Parle East, done by one determined person. This was something! I had to find out who this person is and what is happening!
After careful questioning of a number of flower sellers and particular coconut vendors, I was told that our good Samaritan is owner of a reputed shop in the market. Somehow everytime I went to the shop, he wasn’t there- but identity was confirmed. And one day we met ‘the person’. Mr S is a simple, senior citizen with a heart of Gold and passion for the environment. For the last several years, he has been a regular for morning walks at the AIRPORT COLONY. In his soft and modest way, he told us that he has come to regard the AIRPORT COLONY with great affection and gratitude and also some amount of wonder. That in the midst of a crowded city next to the busy Western Express Highway is a place which is peaceful, pure and provides peace of mind to so many morning walkers, so many of whom are Parlekars. So he decided to show his gratitude by planting trees in the AIRPORT COLONY. He has planted more than 100 trees of different indigenous varieties there. Seeing his zeal, one local person provided him with facility to access water so that he could take proper care of the saplings there.

Soon, Mr G realised that plants also need good manure. He taught a number of flower sellers and coconut vendors from Parle to sort and keep aside their wastes in a gunny. This he would buy from them for a nominal amount and take to AIRPORT COLONY during his walks. He used this material to make compost on site for the 100 trees he planted. This way he facilitated good use of almost 10 sacks of waste per day. Seeing his work, many morning walkers joined him. Helped him in planting, providing saplings, transport of gunny sacks and taking care of plants.

Unfortunately, Mr S had to suspend his activities as some residents of the colony did not take kindly to his activities. But he is not at all bitter about it. His plants are there and they are big enough to take care of themselves. In addition, one person in Parle East has now offered the premises of his bungalow to care out his activities. Associates from SPA who visited this bungalow say the project is really going well. Nirmalya and coconut waste are deposited in pits where microbes and worms do the work. Many pits are used in circulation. Mr S is joined by Mr J in his work here. Mr J is a full time consultant engineer trained at IIT and finds time to do this work inspite of his busy schedule. He has given the concept that waste management project should also look attractive so that people are impressed and join in it. So they have made a fabulous garden around the bungalow. And in Parle itself there are plants giving large variety of flowers, fruits, birds, butterflies- and of course very cool, clean air and beauty to the bungalow.

HATS OFF TO THEM! They are determined to increase the scope of their activities. Mr S says he has decided to give as much time as required for this task- he really believes in serving nature.