Dear Pandit ji, I would be extremely thankful if you send me the full postal address of ARTi, the Pune based organisation, mentioned in the March 2010 issue of GT, that is engaged in the work of recovering methane gas for cooking from food wastes. There are two types of food wastes. One is the waste produced at homes, and the other is in restaurants where excess food on plates are thrown away. ARTi’s efforts can be put to good use in rural as well as urban areas. Lots of tailors and tailoring shops dispense cloth cuttings which are a mix of cotton and synthetic. These are thrown in roads mostly. The drains are blocked. Heaps grow of all that. Some technologies to use the cuttings may be suggested. Thank you. Dilip Textiles, Sutapatty, Muzaffarpur-842002, Bihar Via email Dear Dilipji (Textiles?) I am glad you find our story useful. Here is ARTi’s Address: IInd Floor, Maninee Apartments, Survey No.13, Dhayarigaon, Pune, Maharashtra 411041 For more details you may visit http://www.arti-india.org Thank you for raising the issue of recycling cloth cuts. We will definitely explore the possibilities. As of now, I can tell you that most of the tailors and garment factories sell off the cuttings to Kabadiwala or manufacturers of children’s wears. Smaller pieces are also used by paper making company for pulp. Dear Panditji, I regularly read Down to Earth and Gobar Times. In the March, 2010 issue I found a very timely write-up on heaps of food left over in plates. I had made a new year resolution on 1 January, 2010, along with my family members (including my son who is studying engineering, my daughter who is in 8th standard and my wife) take a little less then the required quantity as the first serving, so that nothing remains on the plate when we finish. I have asked my kids to spread this word among their friends. I request you to spread this to schools, education boards. Maybe some little amount can be levied on left over food in restaurants. In fact, this merits a large scale television campaign . One can point out that wasting food is as reprehensible as buying huge stocks patrol and burning it. Money doesn’t give one the license to waste. If any one has surplus money, he should use it for production and conservation of such resources for the health and well being of Planet Earth. Sk Maltare, Director, National academy of Defence Production, Nagpur Via email Dear Maltareji, Your letter is very inspiring. I hope your resolve to not waste a grain of food remains firm, and you able to influence a lot of others too. Do keep me posted. Dear Panditji, I am a student of M.Sc Biotechnology doing a project on production of bio-diesel. I sourced the fuel also purified it using the wet wash method. Now my project has got stuck because I am not getting a protocol which confirms the production of the fuel. So please suggest a protocol for confirmatory test and also to check the efficiency of bio-diesel in the laboratory. Thank you. Chethna GS, Bangalore, Via email Dear Chethnaji, Working on a project on bio diesel is useful because it is now being portrayed as a very viable alternative to fossil fuels. However, the production protocol is detailed and you need to consult an expert. You can read up more in www.biodieselmagazine.com or write to the Indian Oil Corporation, R&D Centre, Faridabad or call at 0129 2285611-16. Biodiesel, as we all know now, is an environmentally safe, low polluting fuel for most diesel internal combustion and turbine engines.It is produced from various feedstocks including vegetable oils (such as oilseed, rapeseed and soya bean), animal fats or algae. However, before we get too enthusiastic about promoting its production we should keep a few things in mind. A huge spurt in demand would inevitably lead to immense pressure on farmers to produce large volumes of the source crops. This way, land that is now used to grow essential food, might be converted into biodiesel breeding ground. After all, in India we hardly have any excess land to try out new crops! So it will be wiser to limit its use to specific areas, like rural electrification, rather than pushing for mass scale production. Panditji Namaste, I have read about the Green Schools Programme in your website. There is one thing that I really miss in your manual. That is the issue about uniforms.I am a foreign national living in India and I have a son going to an Indian school. I am shocked, I must say. In India water is so precious and can be so scarce at times and what do most children wear? White uniforms, which need to be washed every day and to keep it white one has to use a lot of detergent which all ends up in nature.White shoes, white socks, white pants and white shirts twice a week. Daily a white shirt and socks. Does nobody think of the fact that this cost so much more water than when coloured uniforms are used? This water should be accounted for as water used by the school, you will be shocked how much water one will use for keeping the white uniforms bright and clean.In my eyes, it should by government not be allowed to use white school uniform, just because of the amount of water and detergent it requires to get it clean. Thank you for your time, Lucy Davidson Via email Namaste Lucyji, You have raised a very valid point here, and we shall certainly consider putting it in as a component in our programme. Also, in this issue of Gobar Times we have written about the importance of wearing ‘cool’ clothes in summer. Do read it and let us know what you think about it.