Today I’m going to talk about this. 5R concept. Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recovery and Recycle.

Keluar sekejap beli breakfast anak-anak. Usually i bring my own container. Tapi kedai ni memang pakai bungkus makanan kertas. Salah satu cara mengurangkan pemakaian plastik ialah dgn memilih kedai yg menggunakan bungkus makanan kertas atau kotak.

You hv power on your money. You can say no for things you don’t need. ask the question ‘why you need to purchase this item?’. ‘Do you need it?’.

Refuse freebies if you don’t need it. If it is end up to the thrash just say no. Don’t take it. If it’s reusable, then you can take it.

Refuse to receive materials from your supplies with unnecessary packaging that will end up to thrash.

Reduce.

Reduce, to use less. Think about whay you use and buy. Could you use less? Try to reduce the waste to as low as reasonable practical.

Reduce the amount of energy that you use to heat facility by doing an energy audit.

To reduce packaging, you can buy in bulk. Always asking yourself ‘what is the minimum amount necessary in wrapping things’

Reuse.

Reuse something you have instead of buying or you can reuse waste material. That way it doesn’t go to the rubbish and end up to the landfill.

Replace needing a single use item with something you can use over and over again.

How to reuse waste?

Give unwanted toys, books or clothes to people who need it. Use old jars for storage. save you wrapping paper or box to use it again. Take old magazine to your local clinic, office or salon. Shop at second hand stores.

Repurpose

To take something and use it for something else. This is requires a bit of thinking and craftiness. You can repurpose old jar to a flower pot/creative pot. repurpose old wood crate to shelves.

Rot

Compost your own household waste and food waste.

Make your own compost bin.

This is a friend from Bentarakata compost bin. Compost bin ni sy belum cuba. Tapi I plan to make it for us later.

Konsep basic yg mereka guna ialah menggunakan rumput dan daun kering sebagai karbon. Daun hijau sebagai nitrogen. 40 hari akan menjadi tanah hitam. Cacing dan siput akan datang menjadi agen kompos.

Few of food waste like fruit peel, they turn it into multipurpose antibacterial spray. Only add water and white vinegar. It smell like jeruk buah.

Untuk mengurangkan penggunaan bahan bakar dalam menggunakan mesin pemotong rumput. They do everything manual. Rumput yang dipotong dimasukkan ke dalam compos bin.

Bentarakata also doing this propagation technique any plant that we use or eat. Maksudnya, sayur dikitar untuk ditanam semula. Daun untuk dimakan dan batang atau akar akan ditanam semula. Sayur yang buruk akan dikompos.

Ini sayur yang sy tanam selepas akarnya ditanam semula. And you can keep on it planting back.

In terms of repurpose, I DIY everything to be something that I can use. I make the bench, computer table and books rack out from a canle spool.The lamp is a garden lamp. Bubu ikan which is it’s been for too long in my dad garage, I turn it to night lamp. Antique chair I repair it

I use everything out from the spool. Even the bolts from the spool, we use it to built a bridge

I stop buying things, and start make it myself. with the help of husband of course. I’m not strong enough on the lifting things.

Last GE, there’s a lot of wood waste for making a poster. I turned it into a wooden crate for a storage in my room.

There’s a lot of upcycle workshop. Bentarakata salah satu pusat komuniti yang selalu buat upcycle workshop. Kita boleh belajar bertukang dan membaikpulih atau menukar barangan yang tidak dipakai kepada sesuatu yang boleh dipakai.

This is from a zero waste Sabah group I followed. Everything that you upcycling can be sell at any artisan market or a zero waste meet up.

Photo credit: Zero Waste Sabah.

Find a community centre which is active in saving earth around you, you learn a lot from them.

Photo credit: Bentarakata

Follow any zero waste group or make one, so you can build your own community and make friends. You can exchange ideas, share news and info, or do buy and sell activities on handmade/handcrafted/upcycle item.

This is still a small community. Hope will grow in the future.

So this is me everytime I go to farmer market. I bring my own bakul. This is still a bit awkward for ppl in my place. Mungkin tempat lain tidak. This bring a lot of attention from anyone bila sy membeli di pasar. Semoga mereka dpt belajar sesuatu yg baru jg.

And you can start with a small step by saying no to plastic straw. You can use bamboo straws. You can buy them online, maybe you can check bikaralam ig. I bought mine there.

You can check Bikar Alam IG, they’re selling eco-friendly stuff. Their price is reasonable.

Anything you can tanam sendiri, ternak sendiri can reduce the waste of packaging, reduce bahan bakar utk kereta juga . So this few things sy pernah tanam dulu. Tanam sendiri more organic.

I live by this principle started by a friend of mine, Pangrok Sulap. Anything that I can make, I won’t buy. We used to exchange idea on making things. Berkawan dgn orang-orang kreatif dan positif sangat membantu dr segi idea dan cara berfikir.

So now. tell me what you did to Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Repurpose and Rot. Show me your project! I’m eager to know! We share and exchange ideas