Stop Littering; Start Segregating

 Recently, the photo of a load of plastics in the gut of a shark that washed ashore galvanized volunteers for a coastal cleanup drive. Information says, so far they have removed two tonnes of plastics and 5000 bottles. Only 2% of the waste collected was of fish waste and 55% is plastic. Seems scary and disturbing right? Though a Coastal cleanup can make a difference, it alone can’t solve the problem. It’s high time for all of us to examine our lifestyle.

It's only relatively in the recent years we have moved towards the use and throw culture. For many, years, it was perfectly acceptable to eat food and throw it out of the window, because it would decompose naturally as people were only eating naturally grown products with no fancy wrappings or bottled juices. Now everything is compactly packed. Only the contents can be consumed, the skeleton has to go to the garbage. And moreover, it is very easy to throw the trash roadside or out of the car window rather than looking for a dustbin to trash it.

Can providing more bins or collecting them regularly help sort it out? Garbage from the bins ends up with landfills as there is no proper place or method for disposal. Rather than dumping and complaining the authorities, the easiest way is to segregate wastes at the household level. Do we know that 90% of the household wastes can be recycled? Only if the rest 10% gets into the garbage bin, think how much landfill can be avoided. Major chunks of paper, carton boxes, plastics, aluminum tins etc can be sold to Kabadiwalas and recycled. I have seen my mom and sis doing that for years and I have been trailing them. All that we need is a little extra effort and someplace in our house for a container to collect the recyclable wastes. Now, even my little chap knows which one has to go to the bin and which one should go to the recycle box, even a broken sharpener will find its way to the recycle box.

During my school days, I remember using those old calendar sheets for covering books, the plastic covers we get while buying new clothes will again turn into a safe wrapper on top of books, old greeting cards reused for some craft activity or creating another greeting card for a friend, newspapers to cover the shelves, carton boxes as storage boxes, glass bottles reused in the kitchen and much more. But this is a new era, we just want everything to look new and hence throw them after a single use.

Let’s follow the three R's “Reduce, Reuse and Recycle”. Reduce means generate less garbage or fully use the thing and then treat it as a garbage. Reuse means try to use it again and again in a healthy manner instead of throwing it away after the very first use itself. For example, if you buy a pickle in a glass bottle, after consuming use that bottle for kitchen storage. Similarly Recycle means, instead of disposing of everything, sort them from the things which can be made reusable after slight treatment, like papers, bottles, cans, tins etc.

After all, it's our Planet and we have many generations to come, their world doesn't have to be so bleak. We need as many hands as possible for protecting our mother nature. Please join in with your family and friends!