SAY NO TO PLASTIC: PLASTIC POLLUTION

This Earth is all we have. With its fall we will fall. We have been nourished and nurtured by this very Earth we call mother. Sadly we are the ones responsible for its downfall. To understand life, we created science. This science became all powerful and to ease human life invented many things..PLASTIC was one of them.

Plastic came up in the year 1907. The properties of this material made it immensely popular. It soon tentacled into every arena of human life. It was easy and cheap which attributed to its wide acceptance even in poorest of the nations. Its wide popularity curtailed the fact that plastic is non biodegradable. Most of the forms of plastic are not recyclable as well. The polymers of plastic take more than 1000 years to break down in natural conditions. The menace of plastic has depleted Earth of its natural beauty.

The warning signs of ecological collapse are everywhere. Its killing organisms of both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystem. With growing extinction of species governments have moved resources to curb the problem and many have banned the use of single use plastic. Government of India, although late, has joined the league.

We, the people, are the final consumer of plastic. As consumers we have more power than the government in curbing this menace. "With power comes great responsibility", indeed we have a great responsibility on our shoulders. The responsibility of saving our very planet. Making sure that our existence does not come at the cost of other organisms death. Humans have come this far without plastic. However impossible it may seem we can sustain ourselves without single use plastic. The need? Just responsible consumerism.

The only thing we can best control is our mind. We can choose to go zero waste. While shopping we are at the consumer end. Being judicious of what we buy can significantly reduce the waste we create. Rather than buying packaged food everytime,we can opt to buy in bulk. While grocery shopping we can opt for food that are packed in recyclable containers rather than buying food packed in single use plastic that after use will go into landfill and remain there for the next 1000 years. Would we like to become the generation with plastic waste as its legacy? Surely, we don't.

A simple choice of carrying a reusable bag while shopping can save us from generating tons of plastic in our lifetime. Similarly carrying a reusable water bottle can save us our money and planet as well. A win-win for both. This is not the end. Avoiding packaged snacks can help us maintain zero waste lifestyle as well as save us from future cardiovascular diseases.  Again a win-win. The attractive aspect of such a lifestyle are many like good health, less toxins in the body, cleaner homes and surrounding, and most importantly monetary savings.

Living a plastic free lifestyle can save money. This is because we avoid packaged food and hence we avoid the packaging cost that goes into it. Bulk purchase are cheaper alternative to the packaged food. Nobody has to strive to become perfect in this and get demotivated. To save our planet we need millions to carry out imperfect plastic free living rather than few living this lifestyle perfectly. To our benefit, carrying out this lifestyle is very easy in our country. We just have to be conscious while consuming and that is all our PLANET needs..OUR CARE..

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.