Trashed

What if you were told that your food is contaminated with dangerous chemical substances?  You're probably going to say "No way!"  
Well, believe it or not, it is possible that your food contains dangerous chemical substances.  Candida Brady, a British journalist, found out that chemicals from plastic waste were finding their way into the food chain, and throughout the environment.  Brady then worked together with Jeremy Irons to tell the stories in a documentary.  The documentary reminds us the importance of waste management--well, and probably also the importance of a better behavior for us.


A scene from the documentary ‘Trashed’ with Jeremy Irons, who was in Jakarta for the local premiere. (Photo courtesy of Blenheim Films)


From The Jakarta Globe

Our Forest...So Sad...Time to be Religious?

Our forest... so sad...

http://www.antaranews.com/berita/352347/kerusakan-hutan-paling-parah-terjadi-zaman-reformasi

http://www.greenpeace.org/seasia/id/blog/14-alasan-mengapa-kita-perlu-menyelamatkan-hu/blog/47270/


Even The Noble Quran has given us warning about the destructions...

"Evil (sins and disobedience to Allah) has appeared on land and sea because of what the hands of men have earned (by oppression and evil deeds), that He (Allah) may make them taste a part of that of which they have done, in order that they may return (by repenting to Allah, and begging His Pardon)." 

Al-Quran Surah 30 Ar-Rum verse no. 41..

I think it's about time we become more religious in every aspect of our life.  Do you agree?

Windmill for Bantar Gebang

The Netherlands has a reputation of trade and industry with technology innovations. Some Dutch companies are well-known as innovative and knowledge intensive enterprises. In 2007, Philips invested 730 million euros in their research and development, while Akzo Nobel invested 400 million euros. Other companies work with knowledge institutes to develop genuinely new technologies. Some companies even have cooperation agreements with universities for many years. Of course, universities in the Netherlands have good reputations. Delft University of Technology, The University of Leiden, Amsterdam University and Erasmus University of Rotterdam are among the top 50 universities in Europe.

Picture from: http://imageofholland.filternet.nl/Kinderdijk/kinderdijkframe.htm

Windmill for Bantar Gebang? It’s just a figure of speech. Windmill reflects Dutch mastery of sustainable technology. The Dutch have the ability to make a real good use of their resources. Bantar Gebang (Waste Disposal Sites), on the other hand, reflects our need to learn more. We need to learn how to develop the ability to invent and apply sustainable technology along with our environmental awareness. We need to learn more.

Waste management is one field we can learn from the Dutch. In Indonesia, we still use our good old conventional method, “dump and go”, or may be the more sophisticated one, sanitary landfill. This is probably because (we think) we have many free grounds. The Dutch, on the contrary, are forced by their lack of space (and their growing environmental awareness) to invent sustainable technology for their waste management system.

In 2006, the Netherlands recycled nearly 65% of their waste, incinerated most of the remainder to generate electricity, and sent only a small portion of the waste to a waste disposal site. Their step-by-step plan said “ avoid as much as waste as possible, recover the valuable raw materials from any waste that is produced, try to generate energy by incinerating the rest of the waste, and then dump what is left over (in an environmentally friendly way).” Only recently the system—known as ‘Lansink’s Ladder’—was included in The European Framework Directive.

The Netherlands government implemented sets of regulations to make Lansink’s Ladder work well. They introduced a tax on every ton of material dumped. Currently, dumping waste in the Netherlands costs about 35 euros per ton. If the waste is combustible, additional 87 euros in tax must be paid.

Dutch companies develop profitable business by offering better possibilities in managing waste. More improved technology and systems are being developed. Eindhoven-based company Bakker Magnetics is an example.
Working together with Delft University of Technology, they developed the Magnetic Density Separator. They can build great business by recovering valuable materials from stream of waste.

Picture from: Made in Holland, Waste 2008

Dutch knowledge and expertise in waste management are exported worldwide by companies like Royal Haskoning, Tebodin and DHV. How can we import their knowledge and expertise here? Furthermore, how can we learn to develop our own knowledge and expertise? Studying in the Netherlands is a probably a good start.

[kompetiblog]
[studi di belanda]

Earth Day Celebration, 40 years—22 April 2010

Let’s care for our environment..
The world is under a great threat. Energy crisis, clean water crisis, more extensive flood, just to name some of our problems. Climate change probably remains the greatest threat. However, the situation should be used to find breakthrough, to find ways for us to use energy more efficiently, to use our natural resources wisely, and may be to develop sustainable green businesses.
Thinking big? Try to act small first. Let’s start from ourselves. Let’s start now.

CSR

Corporate Social Responsibility programs—often mentioned as Community Development programs—can be held in ceremonial activities as well as in long term activities. Some target areas for CSR programs are education, health, and natural conservation areas.

In ceremonial activities, a company can hold green campaigns celebrating certain events like Earth Day. Acitivities like planting trees, or cleaning up a conservation area usually involve mass of people. So these activities can also be beneficial for the company’s corporate image.

In long term programs, CSR can be deployed into activities like small green business coaching and mentoring. A company can also work together with a conservation agency to finance conservation projects. Some conservation projects focus on empowering people who live around conservation areas. In these kinds of programs a company can use its corporate social responsibility unit to get involved. Wether in form of funds or in form of technical assistance, the company's contribution will be valuable.

Home Made Composter

Rain barrel, drums, etc can be made into a composter. I wonder what are the alternatives.. It might be interesting to do some trial & error making compost by using our own home made composter.

Don't Burn Those Grass Clippings, Please

Don't burn grass clippings. Grass clippings contain water, moisture within it, so they produce heavy smoke when burned. We can still find people burning them, in the middle of a really hot day... Tell them not to. Grass clippings are good materials for compost.