User:Yoddha25/Solutions to issues raised in HOME (2009) film

The movie Home informs the viewers about various issues about environment. Visual proof of environmental degradation by humans is stunning. A Student organization, Cinema Politca, Stockholm screened this movie at stockholm university on 20th September 2010 to raise money for Pakistan flood victims. After the movie, a discussion was initiated about various issues portrayed in the movie and a list of solutions at an individual level was compiled by students.

Following are the proposed solutions:

ENERGY

 * Using electric kettle instead of an open container on gas saves the energy required to warm water.
 * Immediate fixing of running toilets and dripping taps saves water and as well as energy to make that water usable.
 * Turn off your electric devises when not in se. Some devises come with a standby option but this should be used only when device is required with frequent intervals, otherwise its best to turn off the devise.
 * If your place of living provides clean tap water instead of buying bottled water. This saves water as well as avoids plastic use.
 * If you have a thermos or mug, you can bring hot drinks (or soup) and refill them when you buy coffee/tea instead of taking a paper cup.
 * Don't throw drawing and/or wall paint waste in the sink. Put it in the hazardous waste recycling bin. If you don't want to go through this procedure, just make sure you buy water soluble paints for drawings.

FOOD

 * Organic and/or fairtrade food products should be encouraged during grocery planning. If you're going to buy fish, organic is great, but another great certification is MSC
 * Less meat, specially red, and more vegetarian food seems a more healthy option as well as reducing the environmental impact to make one kilogram of meat. There is no need to stop eating meat, but instead of perhaps eating meat 8 times every week, it can be reduced as per personal convenience.
 * Plan your meal and prepare only required amount of food so that you dont have to throw away afterwards. When you serve it, it's better to serve most of it separated, like the pasta and it's sauce in different bowls. That way it's easier to use leftovers with other dishes.
 * Grow herbs. If you can afford a garden, its best but otherwise many planst can be grown indoor too.
 * Prepare compost using the kitchen waste.

SHOPPING

 * Use your own canvas bag and reuse the plastic bags.
 * Organic/fairtrade clothes are good choice from environmental point of view.
 * Organic clothes are still quite expensive, so a really good and cheap way to get new clothes and/or interior design is buying them second hand. Search for a store nearby for the same and you may find very exciting choices there.
 * Swapping the clothes is another option. Remember that you can swap everything, even interior design and furniture!
 * Fix your clothes instead of throwing them. Just a hole in a sock is not good reason to throw it away.
 * Using environment friendly soaps and detergents makes us lesser guilty to be part of environmental destruction.

GIFTS

 * A lot of shops offer fairtrade, organic, environment friendly gifts and sometimes some part of the money from buying the gift, goes to support a good cause too!
 * Wrap your gifts in old newspapers. If you want, paint it, make a drawing on it or do something to make it more fun, small children find this very exciting.

MISCELLANEOUS
[|List of environmental organizations]
 * Collect your batteries in a box, bag or something and throw them at a battery recycling centre.
 * Avoid plastic. Use cloth bags which can be used multiple times.
 * Think before taking a printout.
 * Recycle the plastic bottles.
 * Use the libraries. they are great place to socialize and individuals dont need to buy all the books themselves which reduces the use of paper.
 * Finally, you can support various projects by giving money or getting involved yourself. Here are some examples: