Author: ff22

Marginal Place

Posted on by ff22

Marginal Place

It is the storage room in our mod. There are 8 rooms in the mod and on top that there is the storage room. In fact, it is a giant trash bin. There are boxes, luggage and beds and mattress in there. Unlike the rest of the house the storage room is heated. The existence of storage room motivates people to order more items and leave the boxes in there.

I have seen storages off campus too. When moved to this county and the exitance of storage shocked me the most. In rural areas like Amherst there are big house and I believe there is no need for a storage. Apart from many rooms, people have garages too. But that doesn’t stop them from storing more items in the storages.

 

Green waste

Posted on by ff22

Maybe it is a bold move. I chose water as a ‘green’ item. When we wash the dishes or do our laundry, we use water and this water goes to waste, but not all of it. If the water goes the field, it is absorbed. And it is not totally wasted. We use laundry detergent and dish soap. These are the chemicals that are used. But water itself is a green object.

According to some reports at least two billion people around the world do not have access to a clean water supply. This affects individuals’ lives in more ways than one and can often lead to life threatening issues.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates and engineering firm Janicki Bioenergy are currently at the forefront of the most recent groundbreaking advances in water science by discovering a way to turn feces into clean drinking water.

A machine called the “Omniprocessor” boils sewage, which is divided into water vapor and dry waste. The dry waste is then burned at an extremely high temperature in order to create steam that powers the generator. After the water is boiled off of the sewage, it is filtered to produce clean drinking water.

 

 

What goes to recycling bin?

Posted on by ff22

Boxes, coffee cups and plastic bags are object that I usually in the recycling bin. The standard cardboard box is made of paper from recycled boxes or the pulp of trees. The final paperboard consists of layers of pulp that have been treated, shaped, and pressed together.

The manufacture of cardboard boxes begins with heavy-duty papers created from tree pulp. The fibers from trees are put through a variety of treatments to produce the stable raw materials for making boxes.

 

According to wm.com currently, about 70 percent of cardboard-boxes shipped commercially are recovered for recycling.

Many of the boxes are themselves made of recycled materials or lumber industry byproducts like sawdust and wood chips.

When recycled, cardboard is used to make chipboard like cereal boxes, paperboard, paper towels, tissues and printing or writing paper. It’s also made into more corrugated cardboard.

The usage of shit

Posted on by ff22

Afghanistan isn’t Kabul. While so many things had changes in Kabul, the rest of the country still lives a life without technology or modern lifestyle.

In rural areas, people don’t have access to electricity, and they get water from the well. And each family has a well in front of their house.

In 2019 I went to Badakhshan province, people in the provincial capital had no idea about the U.S invisible. They are nomads.

Bathrooms usually locates on the third floor. There is one central heading that people use it to cook and keep hot water for tea and warm the house up during the winter. A Tandor is the main source of heat. It is installed in a room which called Tandor Khana. People burn wood, leaves some other items in it. When it is hot, we bake naan “bread” in it. Next morning the ash is taken out of Tandor and dumped into the bathroom. first it reduces the smell, second it is mixed with shit and people spread it on their farms instead of fertilizer. As we are a poor country and there isn’t enough money to buy all kinds of goods. Using shit for farming is a way of dealing with shit in a practical way. People believe using shit is efficient and it doesn’t burn the root of the plants and vegetables.

 

Pile of reusable objects

Posted on by ff22

We are three people in an 8-bedroom mod. Each one of one has at least three reusable shopping bags. But every time we go to get groceries, we forget about the bags we already have. This negligence leaves us with no choice, but to get more paper bags. There is pile of paper bags at home. We always store them, but never use them. We have stored them under the stove in the kitchen. I don’t believe it is hoarding, because in the U.S., over 10 billion paper bags are consumed each year, according to some date. But if there is a fire in the house the bags will help the fire to increase. But If someone visits us they can argue that it is hoarding due to the amount of bags that exist in the house.

Yes, the existence of these items results the lack of cleaning. None is us remove them and clean that the area that the bags have occupied. The existence of these items has attracted so many spiders. And right now, beneath our stove is home to many spiders.

 

Disposable Coffee Cups

Posted on by ff22

Coming from a country where human beings get butchered on daily bases, dealing with Trash or recycling is never on top of our list. I never thought of disposable objects until I moved to American. It never occurred to me to think about it. I have been in this country. “Well, physically” for over year, but there is still a lot to learn. Waste, and recycle are almost new words to me. I know the meaning them, but it is hard to implement them on day-to-day life.

I thought about this prompt a lot. I looked around and paid attention to my surroundings. I tried to find an object that I can justify is as a “disposable object”. But it was a difficult task to get done. In Afghanistan, we barely use disposable objects. It is new to us, and I even don’t know how to translate “disposable” in my own language.

After looking at different things, I come across disposable coffee cups “made from paper and corn,” it says. “100 per cent compossible.” Coffee cup is one of the objects that often interact with and consider disposable.

International Coffee Agreement Annually, roughly 600 billion paper and plastic cups are used worldwide. it’s estimated that Americans throw away more than 50 billion cups every year. Starbucks alone is responsible for roughly 7 billion cups a year.

Disposable coffee cups are made with a range of materials. Even if the cups aren’t made with the environmental villain Styrofoam, paper cups are often lined with equally problematic plastics.

Disposable coffee cups typically have a plastic resin, or polyethylene, lining. Polyethylene is a petroleum-based plastic, requiring thousands of barrels of oil to line our paper cups every single year.

I internet search shows that coffee cups are able to contain hot liquids, because they’re typically made with plastic-lined paper.

A waste site

Posted on by ff22

Three people, 8 bedrooms, two bathrooms and a weird looking living room. This is the space that I share with two other people. Meanwhile there are “MECH ROOM” and a “storage room”. My roommates and I dump our trash in there. Most of the items in the storage room has no use. There are a few boxes and our luggage which occupy the room.

 

5 rooms out have 8 are locked and no one lives there. It is a total waste. The windows are small. There was enough space for bigger windows to put, but architects have put small and narrow windows. If the windows were bigger, more sun could hit the room. It is good for the winter and lesser heat would be needed. Or sometimes. The walls are useless. It is a waste.

 

There are rooms for 6 people upstairs and one toilet. Having one toilet for six rooms is unsanitary. A room would have been used for installing another toilet.

 

There is a coach in the living room that none of us uses it. And the living for is almost useless. There are two front doors. And I genially don’t know why there are two doors.

 

There are six windows in the living room, only a few inches apart from each other. it could have been only bigger window, not so many. These windows are a total waste of money.

Rescue something that seems useful

Posted on by ff22

I grew up among germophobic people. My mom doesn’t eat in restaurants unless staying hungry can jeopardize her health. For example, in 2021 after the fall of Kabul, we were evacuated first to Doha and then to Mexico City. In Doha, she ate boiled eggs for five days until her stomach started hurting. In Mexico City the situation got worse we were no longer in a Muslim country. She could not eat boiled eggs and even bread wasn’t a good option. We got some rice and been.

 

It is very difficult for me to go through others’ trash and rescue an object. There are some books and chapters in the hallway of the dancing hall. I put gloves on and wore my mask. I tried to find a book and get it. I could not find a book that was interesting, and I wanted to read it. So, I didn’t pick anything up. A lot of crazy thoughts popped up in my mind when I was going throwing the items. “What if someone has used the bathroom and didn’t hand their hands and touch the books, beside me who else was here and touched these books, how do I know they didn’t have covid and …” these were my thoughts during the failed rescue process.

 

Most of the items were textbooks. I assume they were left there by the students. They don’t need them anymore that is why the books were treated as waste. No, I don’t think it could be treated otherwise. Usually, when people don’t need some items they leave them outside, thinking that someone else could use them in their favor.

 

Next, I went to check the dumpster. It was disastrous. People had left their trash out, there were bags of trash. The smell was unbearable. I didn’t touch anything.

Waste and personal responsibility

Posted on by ff22

I have noticed that in America people shop on Amazon a lot. The packages come in big boxes sometimes, boxes which get wasted. When people unbox their purchases, most of the time they don’t recycle them. Some boxes are big and don’t fit into the recycle bin even if they do. I have seen people leave boxes outside. When it ruins, it destroys the boxes and goes to waste.

 

We usually don’t sort our trash out and just dump it into dumpsters. The moment people take their trash out and throw it into the dumpsters it is no longer their responsibility. It becomes someone else responsibility.

 

Before taking this class and discussing waste items I have never thought about being responsible for my trash or items that go to waste. Discussing waste and reading about San Man I realized how difficult it is for people who take the trash out and keep the environment clean.

 

in Kabul, where I lived for 20 years. There is trash everywhere. The entire city is a gigantic dumpster. The municipality tried to get people to take their trash out properly, but people never listen to them “our city is our home, keeping our city clean, means keeping our home clean.” It is their slogan. But people leave their crash on the street all the all.  Eating food and throwing trash out of a car window is a usual thing that some people do.

 

I believe taking care of my crash is my responsibility until I take it out. Everyone should take their trash out properly. Seal the bags, and they should be left in front of the dumpster. Leaving broken glasses could be very dangerous for those taking the trash out. I don’t know whose responsibility it becomes when we take the trash out. But their job is very important. If people don’t do this hard job, the city will look ugly and smell horrible. And that can the source of many diseases.