Green Ramadan: How to reduce food waste for a month of Muslims Holy months

One evening in early March, Nina Ansari frowned when he picked up the remaining rice on the bottom of the house near Stone Mountain. “Anyone want to take this?” She asks a group of women standing nearby. If no one responded, she picked it up. Her hands are already full of pizza and curry food. If she does not take the rice home, she will throw it away. 38 -year -old NINA, who grew up in Georgia, said, “There are many waste in Ramadan.

In the Muslim Holy Month, the time of spiritual rejuvenation through prayer and daylight fasting, it is possible to serve hundreds of visitors of IFTAR, an sunset meal that represents the damage of fasting. Some also offer meals at PrectAWN time before the church starts quickly.

Still, it can be added to all garbage. In Atlanta and other mosque, it is not uncommon to find a trash can at the end of the night, and some dishes and plastic water bottles are still half full.

NINA said, “We are not allowed for us. “My family is conscious of water and food preservation. We eat the rest of the food -we don’t waste or grow up on waste. ”

She is not the only person who is worried about the problem. This year, we are planning an environmentally friendly “zero waste” to reduce the foods of more than 24 Atlanta regions or Islamic organizations, foods abandoned by Islamic groups, disposable plates and water bottles. Food waste is the world and national dilemma in the United States. Nearly 40 % of food supply It ends in the landfill. But Marium Masud, who attended Marietta’s Marsgid Alpurcan West Central, says that the garbage generated for a month is directly conflicted with religious commands. It is said that all earths of the earth are supported by the prophet Muhammad. It depends on us to keep it as clean as we keep our support. ”

MASUD is part of the “Green Team” composed of 17 volunteers founded by Al Furqan to solve the problem. Last year, Al Furqan’s green team focused on banning plastic water bottles. In the past, we had abandoned almost 300 plastic bottles every night. But this year is rarely. In order to prepare for Ramadan, the team added a water charging station and brought 5 gallon bottles that could be reusable, and Cub Scout Pack sold recycled aluminum bottles to the community for $ 10. They also accepted the donation to provide water bottles for free to those who could not afford it.

On March 19, Al Furqan (200-250 people, who comes every week for IFTARS) to partnership with Georgia Interfaith Power and Light, will hold GIPL, a non -profit organization that collaborates with the first “zero waste iftar” or religious organizations on environmental definitions. Scheduled. The organization provides reusable or compostable plates and training, workshops and subsidies for knives. After the IFTAR dinner, GIPL also includes the cost of exceeding the Atlanta non -profit organization. attractivenessIt composts food waste and handles items that are difficult to reconsider.

The zero waste of AL Furqan is only one of the 24 zero waste IFTAR planned by the Islamic Center. At least 15 people now have a dedicated green team. Along with the GIPL authentication green team, it has increased since 2023 with Roswell Community Masjid or RCM in 2023. Every Saturday, RCM, which hosts the IFTAR dinner every week, signed a contract with GOODR based in Atlanta in mid -January to handle compost and provided food waste recovery service all year round.

Garbage monitoring

In Masjid Fatimah in Stone Mountain, Mohammeda Ur Rasheed directly supports garbage traffic during the Ramadan period. He sits in a folding chair for several hours every night and tells the male congregation where to recycle, garbage and compost. About 150 people attend the IFTAR dinner every night.

“People waste too much food. There is a half -eaten plate. Sometimes the whole plate. And because they don’t want to see what they throw, they take another dish to cover it. ” “I see you! Sometimes you get a smaller part when you catch food. There is food. I’ve collected a lot of bread for the last two days because people tried to throw it away without it. ” (Some local supports, such as Masjid Fatimah, are trying to reduce food waste that distribute dishes to volunteers before volunteers distribute them to attendees, and he tends to build food on his plate after fasting all day.

Reducing waste is not consistent with religious principles, but also financial incentives. Rasheed estimates that his support has saved almost $ 1,000. Because you don’t have to call Gwinnett County and pick up excess garbage. Instead of five bags every night, there are only one now.

Masjid Fatima still offers plastic water bottles to the congregation. However, this year, the shrine-green poster board near the free bottle is reduced to reduce the recycling capacity. “I uploaded a message and reminds people every day. It displays the bottle and puts it in the beginning. ”Rasheed says. When they drink alcohol, they remove their hat from the bottle and break them to take less space in trash.

At the end of the night, he sorted the compost and garbage and brings them to the house that can be added to the pile of compost, and four chickens and red shaking insects. Rasheed, who has grown horticulture in Hadderabad, India, returns home from the CDC as a biologist and works with bees and spends two hours a day. His garden offers hundreds of pounds of agricultural products every year for his family. In the support, he shows how to use the pizza box left in Ramadan Itar to create an easy garden conspiracy and reduce the time it takes to pull the weeds. He says more congregations are bringing scraps home to follow his example and feed the backyard chickens.

Earth’s Kalipas or Green Team

Ayesha Abid is a program coordinator of Georgia Interfaith Power and Light. Informally, she calls her a Muslim organizer of a non -profit organization and has been trying to increase the number of Muslim organizations that accept recycling, energy use and waste since joining in 2023. [statewide]ABID says that this includes a team of all religious worship. “If there are about 100 support and 15 green teams, I don’t think it is a bad expression.”

Atlanta Masjid in Al-ISLAM in East Atlanta was first composted this year and received subsidies for zero waste from GIPL. Opened in 1958, the support is the largest and oldest Islamic community center in Metro Atlanta.

Abid said, “It is not expensive to compost. “The expensive is manpower or volunteer. The biggest thing I was listening was, ‘I don’t have volunteers to take it. attractiveness. ‘There was a woman [Atlanta Masjid of Al-Islam] I took six to eight compost/recyclable waste to her van. You need a community member who can be willing to go up to do so. I think women in the community are raising this best. ”

Abid is all of the East Cobb Islamic Center, Al Furqan West Cobb Islamic Center, and Roswell Community Masjid. It was recommended that people brought their Tuperware and not bring food home.

“I grew up in Georgia, went to support, and my most important memory of Ramadan is that I see what the aunts are forgetting, geting new illnesses and wasting the whole water bottle.” “Volunteers are tired after fasting all day and have no empty energy in the garden. Muslims should be ‘Kalipas’ [stewards] During the Earth, especially during the Ramadan, I could never understand waste. This break was always noticeable to me. Many people ask questions but don’t care. But we are trying to fix it. ”