Listen to Our Youth!

There are so many ways to make our world a better place. Here is the clip of proposed solutions to the environmental issues presented by our youth (10th to 12th grade) participants of the Courage Project led by Dr. Rohany Nayan.

Essay

What is Courage?

By Amira Shakir
2021-2022 The Courage Project Participant

When many people think of the word “courage”, they think of fearlessness. In actuality, it is the opposite. Courage can not exist without fear. According to Google’s definition, courage is “the ability to do something that frightens one”. A person must face and persevere through a hardship of some sort to have courage.

As all things are, the word itself and the experiences associated with it are generally subjective. An action thought of as simple for one person may be terrifying for another. Although they may be executing the same action or task, the level of difficulty varies between the individuals.

Considering this, everyone experiences courage in one way or another no matter how simple or startling the issue at hand is from someone else’s perspective. The world wouldn’t be what it is today without courage or the will to try. Many well-known leaders and celebrities would not have made an impact on the world if it weren’t for the courage to take the first step. This is something that each of us is able to obtain. But we first must be willing to try.

Any courageous act, no matter how small will slowly but surely make this world a better place. There are numerous issues with the environment and the world is dying. Unfortunately, many people are standing idle and ignoring the matter. Not to say that repairing the earth is an easy problem to overcome. It takes a great deal of courage to stand apart from everyone else and make a difference.

We as a human race should all come together and find the courage to restore the earth. There will be times where we feel hopeless when we don’t see the change or results that we want. Despite this, we must muster courage and persevere.

Ilustration. Source: canva.com

The opposite of courage is cowardice: “lack of courage in the face of danger, difficulty, opposition, pain, etc”. If we are frightened of the issues in the world and abandon them completely, things will only get worse.

Imagine where the world’s most influential people would be if they were too scared to speak up. There will always be hardships and scary obstacles that we all must face as human beings. We must muster the courage to surmount this and excel. As Marl Manson states, “Bravery is not the absence of fear. Bravery is feeling the fear, the doubt, the insecurity, and deciding that something else is more important”.

“He is the One Who smoothed out the earth for you, so move about in its regions and eat from His provisions. And to Him is the resurrection ˹of all˺.”

Al-Quran, 67:15

“Say, ˹O Prophet,˺ “He is the One Who brought you into being and gave you hearing, sight, and intellect. ˹Yet˺ you hardly give any thanks.”

Al-Quran, 67:23

We are very blessed with many things. The earth itself is a gift to us and we should take care of it. Unfortunately, many of us do not use our ears, eyes, hearts and minds to help take care of it. We should muster the courage to help other people aware of the environmental crisis.

By the will of Allah, the earth has given us everything and asks for vey little in return, yet we abuse it. We can express thankfulness by doing our part to help the world.

Also read a Poem on Courage by Nusayba Abdullah, “Nothing Good Comes Easy.

Green News from Indonesia

Green Mosque

A plastic recycle vending machine has been installed at Istiqlal Mosque, the largest mosque in Southeast Asia, located in Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia (click here for the virtual tour of the mosque).

A plastic recycle vending machine in Istiqlal Mosque

As reported by VOI, the collected plastic bottle waste can be exchanged into Plasticpay Points through an app which can later be converted into electronic money that widely used in the city, such as DANA, OVO, Gopay, LinkAja, and INACASH.

According to Antara News, the Istiqlal Mosque recently became the first mosque in the world to receive an Excellence in Design for Greater Efficiencies (EDGE) certificate, as a green place of worship, from the International Finance Corporation (IFC).

The certificate has been awarded to the mosque since the worship place has been renovated based on an environmentally friendly concept. It has increased the efficiency of water and energy usage of the building by applying energy-efficient roofs, outer walls, and lighting; installing smart energy meters; as well as using solar panels, which support more than 13 percent of the building’s electricity consumption.

Waste Bank

Another green news comes from Tanjung Burung Waste Bank – or “bank sampah” as they are called in Indonesian.

At the Waste Bank, customers deposit their household waste and receive money in their bank account based on the rates and weight of the waste. Customers separated the waste into two, inorganic and organic. Inorganic waste is recycled and turned into bricks. Organic one is processed into compost.

Composter to turn organic waste to compost
The flowchart of the process to turn organic waste into compost, it includes storage (gudang) and marketing (pemasaran)
Bricks made from plastics waste
Another alternative to recycle plastic waste to build a wall
Recycle plastic bottles used to build a decoration fence

Reported by Jimmy Kalempouw
CMGT Ambassador from Indonesia

Save Money, Save the Earth

Spring is finally here! It’s time to start gardening. Check out these three tips to save money in gardening.

1. Free compost and free mulch

Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago offers free Exceptional Quality (EQ) Compost. According to their website, the EQ compost is a sustainable and environmentally beneficial product derived from wood chips collected from the City of Chicago’s routine tree trimming programs. They then process them with biosolids in open windrow machines. 

Photo Courtesy of Caroline W

The website lists six pick-up locations in Illinois. My favorite one is at 3500 Howard Street, Skokie. It is very easy to do BYOB (Bring Your Own Bucket). After the big “Free Compost” sign, you can park your car and then fill up your bucket(s) with as much compost as you have buckets for. 

Chicago Departments of Streets and Sanitation also offers free mulch that is derived from the debris of trees and branches removed by the Bureau of Forestry. Their website lists four pick-up locations. My favorite BYOB location is at 5333 N. Western Ave. The mulch is available on a limited basis for pick-up during working hours of 6:30 am to 2:00 pm Monday-Friday.

2. Free used gardening supplies from Freecycle.org

If you need gardening supplies and you don’t mind using previously owned ones, sign up to freecycle.org, an online community for bartering. You can list “WANTED” items or items you can “OFFER” for others. Everything must be free and picked up. 

I have been a member of this wonderful grassroots movement in Chicago for many years, and obtained lots of useful stuff and even shared my own items that I no longer needed.

Last year, I posted my WANTED items: shovels and medium sized flower pots. Not only did I get two shovels and multiple pots, I also got some gardening tools for free that the former owners wanted to get rid of.

The COVID-19 pandemic hasn’t halted bartering since porch pick-up became an easy and safe option. We have also shifted communication to email or phone, making face-to-face interaction unnecessary. 

3. Recycle waste into gardening supplies

It is very easy to recycle and repurpose wastes. For example, toilet paper rolls or yogurt cups can be reused as seedling pots. Used plastic bottles and milk cartons can be repurposed into planters. Wire hangers can be recycled into many useful things too especially in gardening. I recycle my wire hangers into tomato cages and hooks for my greenhouse. 

Photo Courtesy of Caroline W.

Another thing we can recycle for gardening supply is, of course, our food scraps! Instead of throwing away egg shells, banana peels, coffee grounds, etc., we should feed them to our plants. I got ½ pounds of red worms after I finished my C3 (Chicago Conservation Corps) training, and they worked wonderfully for turning my food scraps into compost.

Photo Courtesy of Caroline W

Kids Korner: Recycling and Plastic Bags

Assalaamu ‘alaikum Kiddos! 

Happy New Year 2021 and welcome to our first issue of the Green Leaf Newsletter!   

Here together we are going to have fun learning about different ways to become a “Green Khalifah” –  a person who takes good care of self,  family, friends, the environment and our precious planet. Our ailing earth needs us now to do our part in saving and helping it heals. This month let’s talk about RECYCLING and PLASTIC BAGS.

What is “recycling”?

Recycling is collecting certain items that would be thrown away in the trash and turning them into new items that can be used again.

Why is it important to recycle?

Recycling is important because it helps the planet we live on! When we recycle, we create less trash to keep everything in our environment clean and healthy.

How do I recycle?

STOP!  Before you throw that thing away in the trash, ask yourself:  Can this item be used again? Can it be recycled?

There are many items that we use on a day-to-day basis that can be recycled such as: water bottles, plastic containers, soda cans, newspapers, electronics, cardboard boxes, and much more! Often times if you have seen this symbol:

 This item can be recycled!

Now, not everything can be recycled. Certain things have to be thrown away in the trash such as styrofoam, broken glass, straws, pizza boxes and more. Use the link below to learn more with Gus, at National Geographic Kids about what items can be recycled, composted or thrown away while playing the game Recycle Roundup to win all the points! Enjoy this game!!!

What about plastic bags?

Plastic bags are made out of plastic, so they should be recycled right? 

Technically yes! Unfortunately, many places that process recycling materials advise against it because the plastic bag’s handles often damage the machines used to sort out and process recycling materials. As a result, millions of plastic bags are thrown away in the trash which often ends up harming humans and animals on land and in the oceans. Do you know that it takes about 500+ years for each plastic bag to photodegrade!!!

Fortunately, there are many different projects you can do at home to recycle your own plastic bags. Can you think of any creative ways to do this?

FYI at the Chicago Muslims Green Team,  we have a cool project called,  the PLARN Sleeping Mat: Conserve, Crochet, Care .  The term “plarn” means plastic yarn. Volunteers in this project collect CLEAN recycled plastic bags and creatively crochet them into a sleeping mat. They then distribute the sleeping mats made to our neighbors who need them especially for folks who don’t have housing or beds. Each mat takes about 700 plastic bags to make. That means, we can save about 700 plastic bags from the landfills. The Plarn Project team aims to make about 100 plarn sleeping mats by April 2021 insha Allah. How many plastic bags do we need – guess???  YES! We can save approximately 70,000 plastic bags from the landfills. How cool is that – saving both our planet and helping our neighbors in need?   Check out the project and volunteer if you can.

If you can’t find any plastic bags at home, there are certain local stores near you such as Target, Walmart, Jewel-Osco, Harris Teeter and many others that will have bins located inside to recycle those plastic bags for you. For your information, those bins will then be sent to specific recycling centers that have special equipment to properly recycle your plastic bags.

Here are 7 reasons why it is important to recycle your plastic bags:

According to the Center of Biological Diversity,

  1. Americans use 100 billion plastic bags each year which is not great for the environment because it requires about 12 million barrels of oil to make.
  2. About 100,000 marine animals every year are killed by plastic bags.
  3. 1 in 3 leatherback sea turtles have been found with plastic bags in their stomachs.
  4. Plastic bags are typically only used for an approximate of 12 minutes.
  5. It takes about 500+ years for a plastic bag to degrade in a landfill.
  6. According to Waste Management, only about 1% of plastic bags used are recycled.
  7. According to Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), it is estimated that about 80% of plastic bags in the ocean originate from landfills.

As you can see recycling plastic bags is an incredibly important step in helping our environment and we all have to work together in any way that we can to help heal our planet!  So, keep recycling!!!

Green Idea: Self Watering Planter Using Plastic Bottle

How Long Will the Water Last?

In this calming video, we learn how to create a self-watering planter using plastic bottles that would otherwise be recycled. There are many resources out there, so if you don’t have access to shoestrings or chemical-free wet wipes (as used in this video), feel free to check out other tutorials. You can grow most herbs and vegetables hydroponically, but be mindful that some will need to be transplanted to a pot full of soil once they establish a root system. This is a great way to stay connected to nature during the winter and it’s incredibly rewarding to see the plants grow from your efforts.

What herb or vegetable are you eager to grow first?

Self Watering Planter using Plastic Bottle Youtube video by
HODUNE