By: Natalia Trita Agnika

The 3Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle) is a way to tackle the growing waste problem. Through this activity, the amount of waste can be reduced by reusing and recycling it into something more useful. This activity is very easy and can be done by anyone, anytime, and anywhere. Not surprisingly, WWF-Indonesia's Panda Mobile educational truck often holds 3R activities as a means to educate children to be more passionate about protecting the environment.

But it turns out that the 3Rs activity is not an activity that is only used to protect the environment. In a sharing session with Marisza Cardoba, founder of Marisza Cardoba Foundation on Wednesday (7/10) at WWF-Indonesia's office in Jakarta, Marisza revealed that 3R activities can help her release stress.

Starting in May 2012, Marisza who suffers from ITP (Idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura) experienced internal bleeding. ITP is an autoimmune (immune system) disorder that results in a very low platelet count, making it easy to bruise or bleed excessively. As a result of the internal bleeding three years ago, Marisza fell into a coma with feelings of exhaustion and despair as she faced the disease for 25 years without a clear cause and cure.

Struggling with feelings of exclusion and rejection from people around her who looked at her strangely due to a body damaged by the side effects of treatment, Marisza received an injection of enthusiasm from her baby who prayed for her and transmitted positive energy to her. She felt valuable again. The woman who was diagnosed with ITP since she was 5 years old began to rise up and intends to help other Odapi (ITP sufferers) to realize that they are valuable.

A difficult financial situation due to debt due to huge medical expenses was experienced by her. His various assets and companies were sold to continue living. The only opportunity to get a source of income at that time was to manage garbage on several toll roads. It was this difficult situation that introduced Marisza to various types of waste. This situation provided an opportunity for Marisza to gain knowledge about the types of waste, how to manage them, and then make them into something valuable. One of them is turning organic plant waste into natural dyes for batik cloth.

Her recycling activities have made her realize that nothing in this world is useless. This increased her confidence to always think positively. The positive effect is that Marisza managed to "make peace" and adapt to the ITP condition without the support of drugs. During this time she was very dependent on drugs which actually made her body even more fragile.

Not only helping her to release stress and increase her confidence, the recycling activity she initiated received support from a number of environmental volunteers from Australia, John Richard Devlin, Ph.D. Together with Yusaira Farhia and Resa Aprianengsih, they formulated an environmental program called "The Hidden Potential" as a means for Odapi to practice positive mind control through waste processing and utilization. Through this program, a waste bank named "Bank Sampah Uni Resa" was established in Bantar Gebang. Various types of waste ranging from organic plant waste, paper waste, cloth/textile waste, to plastic waste are processed by empowering several Odapi and children scavengers in the zone III area of Bantar Gebang TPST. They not only get the knowledge of waste processing but also get mental education and general knowledge through the "Smile-Inc" education program. The products produced through the 3R activities have successfully penetrated foreign markets, namely six countries in Europe.

All Odapi who have done the 3R activities feel very helpful with the positive effects obtained. During the process, they experienced stress healing and formed positive thoughts, as well as improved their ability to adapt to difficult situations. They were even able to manage their ITP condition without fear. They are happy to encourage other Odapi to do similar activities instead of being trapped in feelings of inferiority. The 3R activities have helped improve the environment while positively impacting their physical and psychological health. Through 3R activities, they have turned waste into blessings.

We can also do the same thing as Marisza did. By adopting a green lifestyle, we can contribute to a better environment. This green lifestyle has a wider impact if it is transmitted to others. Find various examples of green lifestyle-oriented behavior in the "Green Lifestyle WWF" sticker series. These stickers can be downloaded at Blackberry Messenger Shop.