ZERO WASTE SHOPPING IN INDIA..

This blog will be a continuation of my sustainable living and zero waste lifestyle series. If you have not read those blogs, the links to them are given below.
https://archishmansardar.blogspot.com/2019/12/the-baby-steps.html

https://archishmansardar.blogspot.com/2019/12/choosing-sustainability.html

In today's blog I will be specifically mentioning the scenario surrounding zero waste shopping in India. It's actually very easy to lead this lifestyle with in our country. Most of the people who live in developed countries and want to lead this kind of lifestyle throng to farmer's market to get their greens. Greens in such countries are a part of shopping mall culture and are vacuum packed  in plastic to increase their shelf life. The localities that have farmer's markets can easily sustain such a lifestyle but those which lack, it comes down to the people. They need to become conscious consumers. As for our country, greens are primarily sold in daily green markets. In some areas weekly haats are also seen. It's easy to go zero waste just by carrying a reusable shopping bag because produce are rarely packaged in plastic and are usually fresh from the fields.

From greens now let's move to sea foods and meat. Unfortunately this is an area where going zero waste becomes tricky. It's not that it can not be done, it's just a bit difficult. In India sea foods and meat are usually given in single use plastic bags because paper bags can not yet serve the purpose. To avoid these plastic bags we can carry reusable containers and ask the shopkeeper to fill them instead of a plastic bag. There are some areas mostly in the eastern and central India where these kind of purchases are wrapped in leaves and tied with coir which makes them waterproof and easy to carry. Lotus leaves, Saal leaves etc are used for this purpose. This method if adopted pan India can really curb out single use plastics from our daily shopping.

India is primarily a vegetarian country. Any discussion would be incomplete unless we review their side too. Cottage cheese or paneer  forms an important part of vegetarian diet enriching it with the required protein. Unfortunately they come in vacuum packed plastic bags. Milk too comes in plastic packaging. But there are ways to do away with this too. The stratified Indian society has assigned some people with cow milking activities. Consumers can easily buy fresh milk from them which they get delivered directly to their homes and without any packaging. These people also make products such as ghee, paneer(cottage cheese), butter and sell them. Just ask them for their products and you can get them delivered home without any packaging to worry about.

The daily shopping section is where consumers generate the most waste. But when one decides to deal with problems of our lifestyle and choose to become conscious we can impact our surrounding in a positive way. I will continue this discussion further in another blog. Till then take time to reflect on your lifestyle and adopt the changes that you can.
Here are some topics for you to indulge next:

https://archishmansardar.blogspot.com/2020/01/habit-of-reading.html

https://archishmansardar.blogspot.com/2019/12/ideal-education.html

https://archishmansardar.blogspot.com/2019/09/reducing-waste.html

https://archishmansardar.blogspot.com/2019/09/caring-for-environment.html

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..

CHOOSING SUSTAINABILITY..

There is no doubt in the fact that we are responsible for the sorry state of environment around us. As Indians we are very proud of our heritage and culture. But we never kept those heritage and customs which favoured a environment friendly life style. We moved on. Swept by the lights and ghare of consumerism. In all this, environment received a set back like our rich Indian customs and traditions.

We have come a long way. Today our very own sustenance is harming the environment. People consciously make choices that damage the Earth and then brag about problems of pollution and government inaction. A fast life has indeed brought economic process but at a devastating cost. Hills of garbage in land fills, fishes dying of chemical pollutants, minors dying of lungs cancer etc have become the new status quo. This life style has done everything wrong..very wrong..

We are all familiar with the problem. But do you all know what's the funny thing? We know the solution as well. Inaction is a sin and we all are committing it everyday. We receive the first set back through self doubt. We think that what good will our steps do in a world filled with 7 billion people? To this I can quote only one think. People that surround you do not learn from teachings, they learn from examples. Once you prove that zero waste and sustainable living are possible, people will take up the challenge themselves and soon change will be visible.

Covering the entire topic of sustainable ways of living cannot be completed in a single blog. In the following blogs I would come up with the changes that I personally have implemented to live minimally and in a more sustainable way. The most inspiring thing in my journey has been the realisation that living sustainably is the easiest in our country. This brings us the opportunity to grasp the ideology without much changes in our life style. As every one else out there who talks about sustainability and its positive financial impacts, I guarantee you that all those things are true.

The upcoming blogs will list the positive impacts of a sustainable life style. We are lucky to have access to knowledge about modern meaning of living sustainably. But it's sad that our own culture promotes such a life style to which we turn blind eyes. As I said living can not be taught, leave aside sustainable living. It can only be propagated by self examples and experiences which is exactly what I am determined to do.