THE SCHOOL OF THOUGHTS part 2

LIVING IN SAFE ISOLATION

Although human can't live long in the Antartic, penguins love their frosty homes. Penguin can't fly, but they are part of the bird family. There are 17 species of penguin living in and near the Antartic. The emperor penguin is the biggest. It is 122cm tall and weighs 40kg. The smallest is the fairy penguin that stands at 35cm and weighs one kilogram. Penguins are very good swimmers. They swim so quickly that they look like they are flying under water. Little penguins eat krill while larger penguins eat fish and squid. Penguins are so scared of sharks that they won't jump into the water unless some other penguin is already swimming. They line up on the beach and try to push each other in !

Organic waste takes up about 50% of the total waste going into our landfills. If that 50% can be taken out, not only will the lifespan of the landfill be extended, there will be considerably less contaminants leaking into the groundwater and carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere from decaying waste. A pilot project that aims to do just that is currently under way in the city - organic waste (food waste and garden trimmings) is being collected from several hotels and hypermarkets and taken to a worm farm to be turned into vermicompost. Using vermicomposting is like going back to nature, and the end product is very good quality fertiliser.

Since June this year, the project has been collecting three tonnes of organic waste daily from hotels and hypermarkets around the city. The project is a co-operation between the city council and NGOs looking into managing solid waste and specifically it is aimed to push for vermicomposting of organic waste, to try and reduce the amounts being dumped into landfills. The mecahanism is simple where the food waste is segregated at the source and put into specific bins. A dedicated truck goes around daily to collect the waste and bring it to the vermicomposting site, where it is turned into organic fertiliser. The end product goes back to whoever is funding the project. They either sell or use the vermicompost. So be it !

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