NAIROBIANS AND THE 3 CHAMBER BINS

The Nairobi City Council environmental department has put in place 3 chamber bins that enable segregation of waste at source. The bin has been clearly labelled: plastic litter, biodegradable litter and other litter (sand, glass, etc.). This is a great initiative but how many people really read the labels? How many people put their waste corresponding to the labels of the bins? Well, I took time to find out.

I went around in town and peeked into each of the 3 chamber bins located in the CBD. In addition to that, I also had the opportunity to watch people use the bins. The results: amazingly shocking. (Did I mention that I looked liked I had lost my mind?) Anyway, in all of the bins, the public had not followed the well written instructions. They also did not take time to put the waste into the corresponding bin. The waste was mixed up as they just used the bin. For a people who have over 300,000 graduates per year, this was quite disheartening. It is even harder to comprehend because in addition to the instructions are colours. Blue, green and brown. If we are the most educated county in the country, how would people in Wajir or Mandera use the bins? Are you among the people who do not use the bins appropriately?

The 3 chamber bin

I am inclined to say that we are educated but not learned. We study to pass exams and we only do what benefits us. Can you see that piece of paper next to the bin? Someone was too in a hurry to place it inside the bin. That person may be the very same one saying the government is at fault for the filthy state of Nairobi. Has the government not built for us the 3 chamber bins? Has it not given us free access to basic education so that we can be able to read the instructions? Has God not given us the responsibility to take care of our surroundings? What will it cost us to put our PET bottles into the blue bin for plastics?

What we don’t know is that when all the trash has been taken by the NCC, we spend millions of our hard earned money separating it. One may argue that this is creating employment. I say that this is revenue spent unnecessarily. How about we use that money to generate jobs in sustainability development? Waste that cannot be separated because it is too mixed up is sent to the ever growing Dandora dumpsite. And it is only a matter of time before what happened in January, 2006 in the Philippines happens in Kenya (google what happened). We will then be spending on funerals and in machinery to recover the buried people.

It is one thing to have nothing being done about anything and a different thing when something has been done and we do nothing about it. Do not be the reason why Nairobi is full of litter. In other news, Mazingira Safi Initiative celebrates children alongside Nigeria in today's World Children’s Day. Bring back our girls.

For the love of children

Article written by Purity Wanjohi

LET'S NOT BE COMPARED TO CANCER!!!

I recently came across a very thought-provoking comment posted on the internet. This is what the writer, Agent Smith, wrote: “I would like to share a revelation that I have had. It came to me when I was trying to classify your species. I realized that you humans are not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment, but you humans, do not. You move to an area, and you multiply and multiply, until every natural resource is consumed. The only way you survive is to move to another area. There is another organism which follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus! Human beings are a virus, a cancer.”

Now, for a person to sit down and think about this and then transfer all his thoughts onto a webpage, he must have either experienced the wrath of our fading environment or was knowledgeable enough to know we are sitting on a time bomb. Agent Smith compared us to a virus, a cancer. These are the worst form of life-forms to ever exist. In my opinion, we are worth being called viruses and cancers. Like many other cities of the world, Nairobi is a city that is dull and full of slabs of concrete on every corner. A city with little green yet our national flag bears the green color. Who is to blame?

Our country is very busy growing steadily in every sector and poorly environmentally. We are experiencing a construction boom yet no nature boom as we go along. Are we doing this out of ignorance of the danger the environment is facing or out of selfish ambitions? Are we climbing the ladder of economic success while stepping carelessly on the head of the environment?

A day is coming when the sun, the trees, the waters, the soil and the wind will gang up against us. It will not be a battle with a hope of mediation. It will be one where humans will cry for mercy. We will sit and soak up the hot sun until we can’t anymore. Our throats will be on fire because we will have no water to drink. We will one day be sitting in the comfort of our big mansions, watching on our big flat-screen TV, news and images of malnourished human beings yet with all the money we will have acquired with our development, there will be no food to buy.

It is time we stop behaving like viruses and cancer cells. It is time to stand up and fight for this precious part of us that just keeps on giving while we give back nothing, time to give environmental issues the attention they deserve, time to take the environment as serious as we take politics. It may be a long shot but every journey starts with a single step. For example, stop littering with the wrapper from your sweet or PK! Thought-provoking, isn’t it? Think about it then act then tell your friends.