I am thoroughly enjoying hosting giveaways – not just for your enthusiasm but also for the interesting discussions that result thereby. I see a thriving community in those discussions, where members open up with out-of-the-box thinking and bring innovative ideas that spark healthy competition. Especially, in this particular giveaway, where the theme was to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle, I thought participants were genuinely interested in sharing their unique ways that make a difference, rather than be there just for the bag. If you go through all the responses, you’d see the wide array of responses we got some of which are ridiculously easy to implement.

So this giveaway, it will not be only about the winner, but also about putting forth the brightest ideas from all participants. Here we go:

1. Mitch Dudani: She has completely stopped using paper at work, taking notes on the computer instead. As such, no buying notepads/notebooks.
2. Gurjeet Chhabra: They have converted old items lying around the house to something useful and made newspaper bags to store vegetables.
3. Lakshmi Gandhi: She avoids using plastic bags as she makes her own cloth and paper bags. Do not dismiss this as something that sounds cliched. It’s one of the easiest things to do with far fetching results for the enviroment.
4. Meenakshi Kapur: She has mentioned a whole host of things they do:
a) They use their own cloth bags whenever out for shopping.
b) They walk to the market thereby saving fuel.
c) Car pooling to save fuel.
d) Constructed their home in a way that maximises ventilation.
e) Use of CFLs.
f) Using water in a mug for brushing and in a bucket for bathing rather than using a shower.
g) They collect water when washing utensils and use the same to water plants.
h) They plant trees for the birthdays of family members.
i) Rain water harvesting system in place.
5. Shradha Agarwal Kumar: The points she mentioned are:
a) Waste segregation. This is a very overlooked concept but extremely important.
b) They carry their own water bottles rather than buying plastic ones that sooner or later end up in landfills.
c) Usage of solar water heaters.
d) They use public transport whenever possible.
e) Reuse of old items to create cool gifting material.
6. Ishani Dhar Dutta: She mentioned switching off lights/fans diligently in rooms before exiting and also about waste segregation.
7. Ghazala Naseem suggests using solar cooker/pressure cooker with multiple pots. She wrote another crucial aspect – of repairing leaking faucets on a timely basis.
8. Ruhee: She is a professor at NIFT and mentioned that she converts old clothes belonging to her daughter and herself to bedsheets, cushion covers, bags and even new clothes! That would be great fun, I’m sure!
9. Tanya Tanu: Tanya is quick to admit that today’s busy lifestyle robs them of the time to recycle old stuff, something they used to do earlier. However, she now taasks her maid to do the same as the latter is quite talented in making quilts. She’s honest enough to add that she knows she has a long way to go and is eager to learn novel ways.
10. Reema Garg: She mentions that she feeds leftover food to cattle. Commendable!
11. Kanchan Advani: She mentioned using public transport, usage of cloth bags made by reuse of old clothes and using water used for cleaning vegetables for plants.

Kudos and thanks to each and every participant. Ok, I know what you’ll are waiting for. The winner…so it is:

Meenakshi Kapur

…for the many things she does to Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.

Congratulations Meenakshi! Do let me know your choice of bag and your complete postal address.

For those who didn’t make it this time – I’d say hold on, because giveaways are going to be a regular feature here. And reiterating something we’ve learnt as children – participating is more important than winning! Have sportsman spirit and continue participating! 🙂