Year ending. Are you keeping tabs?

In Malaysia, we have already celebrated Hari Raya and Deepavali and Christmas is around the corner. As with most festive occasions, canned drinks are one of the "must buy stuff" for our friends and relatives who are expected to visit.

So, I took the opportunity to show the children a news article about the efforts of Dr Therdchai Jivacate who is head of the Mobile Artificial Legs Production Unit and General-Secretary of the Prostheses Foundation, set up in 1991 under the royal patronage of the late Princess Mother. He is a prosthesis specialist, who has created joints for artificial limbs out of tabs pulled off aluminum cans. Why just the tabs and not the cans? This is because the cans take up space and will smell over time if there are any leftover liquids.

Just 3,000 pieces of tabs, which weigh up to one kilogram, will enable the organisation to make the joints of at least two artificial limbs. The idea of using the tabs and being self-reliance by getting all the materials for his artificial legs from local sources reduced the cost of production and enabled the foundation to provide them free to amputees.

Dr. Therdchai has a surplus of tabs provided by local collections throughout Thailand. So, it is not necessary for the children to collect and send them to The Prosthesis Foundation as it would be costly. But I think this is a very good example of a recycling cause for the children to learn about. I hope that this story will remind them to keep tabs in the little book they have created, of what they can do with recyclables other than sending them to the recycling centres .

Come to think of it, this can become a touchy subject if I did not get the right message across. So, just in case they have the wrong idea and their parents started complaining, then I will suggest that they be shown this slide to explain what being unsustainable is all about.

Teaching children? You need superheroes.

It is not easy to teach young children if you cannot gain their attention. Moreover, this is their school holiday and they should be having fun. I decided not to show them this slide on energy and cost saving tips as it would have bored them. They are not the ones paying the house utility bills after all.



Here is another with the same message that they can relate to.



If watching heroes is fun, how about teaching them how to find a recycling cause to become a hero of? I started off by teaching them how to create a book to take down some "howtos" notes. Material used to create book? Used A4 size paper, that is blank on one side, of course.



Once they have that ready, I let them watched a slide on the "KAB Man", which I hope will give them some inspiration.



Then I showed them some junk mails promoting a supermarket with lots of pictures of stuff on sales. I asked them to look out for such junk mails at home and asked them to write down in the books they have created what they can "Reduce, Re-Use or Recycle from the product printed on the brochure.

My 10 years old son has been inspired by the slide. He said he wants to be "MIB Man". What? "Man in Black" for recycling? He corrected me. It's "MAB Man" and that stands for "Malaysia Always Beautiful Man".

That's my hero.

Shopping? Buying product or packaging?

I have to admit that when I am out shopping for gifts, I have been guilty of choosing product based on the packaging the product came in. I think people tend to shop in this manner as my children have been victims of "beautifully packaged" gifts before. When all the lovely wrappings are removed, there is nothing much to enjoy in the package.

I came to realised this when I was trying to look out for information to share with the children at the workshop conducted at Sungai Long Buddhist Society. Here are some slides from YouTube that will make you wonder if you are actually paying more than you should because of the packaging. Find out what you can do about it.







So, other than changing our shopping habits, what else can we do about it? Hmmmm..., how about creating our own packaging? I will definitely be looking into that. So, watch out for some DIY packaging ideas in my future postings.