When garbage sorting is fun

For nearly 10 years, my family has maintained the habit of sorting garbage. Instead of putting everything in one bag for environmental workers to collect, we have turned waste sorting into small joys as well as gradually changed the daily actions of each family member according to the 3R principles (Reduce – Reuse – Recycle).

My family’s household waste area has two old painted buckets. One is used to hold plastic bottles and beer cans; the other is used to hold organic waste such as vegetable stems, fruit peels, leftover food, etc.

The first bucket was given to my children to “manage” and sell to the scrap collector when full. The children were very excited to have a small amount of money to save for their own projects.

The second bucket is for my small garden. The garden is only a few dozen square meters, has a few chickens and a few fruit trees, all “fed” by the organic waste every day.

Paper, cans, and bottles are collected by my children to sell as scrap.

At first, I was quite interested in learning how to process organic waste before putting it in the garden. For example, raising black soldier flies - calcium worms to process waste and create food for chickens; composting organic waste with EM products... These methods are effective but take a lot of time, so I returned to the fastest way, which is to put all organic waste in the garden. Leftover food will be used as food for chickens, the rest will decompose naturally. Periodically, I dilute EM products with Trichoderma antagonistic fungi and spray them on the surface to promote the decomposition process, increasing beneficial microorganisms for the soil. Thanks to that, my small garden from dry, barren land now has a loose, moist organic cover. In the garden, there are several types of fruit trees that grow naturally, do not need fertilization but still regularly produce sweet, fragrant fruit.

The remaining trash that cannot be reused is put into bags for the environmental company to collect periodically once a week. Compared to neighboring families, our trash bags are always smaller, lighter and odorless. In addition, we also have a plastic bottle specifically for old batteries and some hazardous waste. Every time there is a collection activity, my children will bring hazardous waste to exchange for gifts; even without gifts, just seeing hazardous waste not mixed with household waste is a joy for us.

Waste classification also helps us to reflect on our consumption habits. For example, when we look at the amount of waste that cannot be reused - mostly plastic bags, plastic cups, plastic trays that are sent to landfills every week, we will find ways to reduce it by bringing water bottles, cloth bags; not using plastic straws or refusing to use plastic bags when not really necessary.

Whenever my family has relatives coming to visit and stay, my children will naturally guide guests on how to sort trash or explain why it is necessary to sort trash. The money from selling scrap, in addition to saving for personal needs, the children also take a small amount to participate in supporting disadvantaged friends, supporting disaster areas or putting it in small red envelopes to give to garbage collectors. Those are the lessons about responsibility for the environment and sharing with those around them that my children have learned from the habit of sorting trash.

According to the Law on Environmental Protection, from January 1, 2025, families and individuals are required to classify household solid waste, but the implementation so far still has many shortcomings, making the results not as expected. Hopefully, each family will find suitable ways to make waste classification a habit to join hands in protecting the environment.

Source: https://baodaklak.vn/xa-hoi/202506/khi-phan-loai-rac-la-niem-vui-eb7129a/