REDUCING WASTE..

Our lives today have become fast. To aid this fast life many inventions have come up that are designed to save time. We all come across hundreds of such inventions in our daily lives. Some prominent among them are the one time use polybags, canned food items, packed foods, ready to eat items etc. These all have changed our lifestyle to suite the need of the hour.

These items are trending and the demand is very high. To keep the interests up, this arena is dedicated to more innovations to suite the needs of the growing population. We accept them as a boon of modern age and never give a second thought before accepting them.

These items have been responsible for immense damage to our ecosystem. By using these items we have played our part in damaging our environment. The whole concept of use and discard has been a curse in disguise. Almost all of such items are non biodegradable. The world as a whole generates thousands of tonnes of these non biodegradable waste per day. Most of these items end up in the landfills or in the oceans leading to land and water pollution. The oceanic ecosystem has been heavily impacted by these and have resulted in mass extinction of certain species.

The international forums have now become conscious about the impact of such inventions and have placed many restrictions on their use. The developed countries have been somewhat able to implement these restrictions and replacing these items with environment friendly ones. But developing countries have not been able to properly implement them due to cash crunch and lack of innovation.

The important thing to note here is that the government is not responsible for the waste generation. The waste is generated by us. Then why should we blame the government for the environment? It is our home, its our responsibility to take care of it. In early days people lived and had a very minimum carbon footprint. We can reduce ours by taking conscious decisions. We can avoid using one time use items and replacing them with alternatives that can be used multiple times. While shopping we can opt for items that are not packed in plastic. Canned food items can be replaced with fresh ones. All these are just small lifestyle changes which can impact the environment in a positive way. Plus there is an added benefit of good health as the packed items usually contain harmful chemicals. 

The social media has addressed this topic very well and there have been numerous experiments on minimalism and carbon negative lifestyle. Some have proved these lifestyle changes to actually have been economical. All we need is just conscious decision making and we can actually do wonders for our environment.  

CARING FOR THE ENVIRONMENT..

We only have one planet to live in. We depend heavily on its environment for our survival needs. Without it we would not have been able to survive. The simple way to express the importance can be by saying that everything that nature provides us like light, air, water etc are priceless.

People are well aware of the importance of nature, yet they turn a blind eye to all the problems that the nature is suffering because of them. There are numerous indications around us that show us that our environment is getting sick day by day. The government is under pressure to maintain the development of the nation but in a sustainable way. But we have seen that the trickle down effect is almost never upto the point. Hence it is in our hands to implement the ideology of environmental protection in our daily lives. We are 1.3 billion people. Imagine the impact a simple change of ideology can have on the environment.

Talking about ideological change we must not assume it to be some serious dedication. It simply means that we should keep the safety of our environment in mind while carrying out our daily chores. A simple change in choice can benefit the environment in a large way. 

The season of festivals have approached. As per hindu traditions almost every household observes puja of the God or Goddess they believe in. For this purpose they buy idols. The market for idols shines as the demand gets high. To meet this high demand sculptors have developed the method of making idols using POP. POP stands for plaster of paris. The idols make of POP have several benefits over the traditional clay idols. They are quick drying, durable, easy to work on, look beautiful and can be made in a short time. But most importantly they are quite cheap because it involves less amount of work. Amid all these benefits the concern for the environment receives no importance. POP is non biodegradable. The custom of bisharjan of idols in the water bodies has contributed to water pollution and marine habitat destruction. POP remains at the bottom of water bodies and hamper the natural process of sedimentation. The clay idols melt in the water and itself gets deposited as sediment but the POP idols remain there for decades.

Humans are economical creatures. This very reason has contributed to the increasing popularity of POP idols. The sight of clay idols is rare today. A single person can make hundreds of POP idols but the clay idols require craftmanship and time. If we make a simple choice of choosing clay idols over POP ones we can create jobs as well as protect the environment. The POP idols usually have artificial colours that again harm the environment. There are ample reasons to avoid POP idols. Thus we require awareness and a simple change in ideology to curb this problem. Environment is in our hands. It's our choice to keep our home clean and green. This festive season take a pledge to avoid POP idols at any cost. This simple step can change our world for better because in the end we only have this single planet in the entire universe to survive.