A lot of us are concerned about the state of our planet. Most of us are getting angry at the corporations, civic bodies, affluent people and sending them a piece of our mind across several social channels. Some of us are readily taking the responsibility for our surroundings and trying to adopt zero waste lifestyles, encouraging non-plastic alternatives for daily use, and actively helping out in the restoration of local water bodies. The significant drop in the last category of people should be a cause for concern for all of us.
This should not actually be a surprise given the scale of the problem. Waste disposal and solid waste management are often prone to inefficient and sometimes unscrupulous practices. Industries are always concerned about their bottom lines and sometimes adopt malicious practices with the backing of powerful legal and political clout. Lastly, plastics have made a huge impact on our lives and completely and consciously cutting out is a big ask from its main target group-us consumers.
The inertia here is the problem and we barely try and challenge it. That can be fixed by taking small, measurable steps towards environmental restoration. We need to set reasonable expectations and fulfil them with a sense of empathy for any real changes to take place.
Begin by taking stock of your home and office space-how much waste do you leave in the bins, how much is your energy consumption, do you commute in shared rides, and what all plastic can you replace with naturally sourced items. The list may immediately show you some simple change that you make right away, for example, a lot of your office supplies may be replaced by the recycled fare that is easily compostable and can be upcycled. You may even find that switching to eco-friendly containers and packaging has reduced your plastic consumption significantly. As such even your combs and brushes may be switched out for equally durable wooden or bamboo fibre variants which you now use every day. These are then readily recycled or combined with biodegradable waste and taking an inch less of the plastic landfills that are beginning to outgrow their locations and make their way into our cities.
Our daily coffee in the coffee shops during the get together or over the professional meet, ups created a huge amount of waste. The plastic waste created by the coffee cups contains an estimate of 2.5 billion units which are thrown away and eventually ended up in the landfills or waterways. This figure is likely to be high and 99.75% of them do not get recycled as the cost of recycling is very high and most of the municipalities do not have the facility. The reusable cups are the best way to decrease the environment waster. Most of the famous coffee houses started adopting using the cheap reusable coffee cups and their making also does not affect the environment. The manufacturing of the non biodegradable plastic uses fossil fuel and the burning of them produced a hefty amount of carbon dioxide while the biodegradable products do not produce such harmful gases.
The bioplastics are 100% compostable and can be naturally decomposed in the environment. These biodegradable products are made from raw material like maize, corn starch, cane sugar, potatoes, vegetable dyes, etc. We should start adopting these things into our lives and save our environment from the burden of plastic. The non biodegradable plastic is affecting our environment in the worst possible ways and it is harming the flora, fauna, and humans.
We should build a community of motivated individuals that are as passionate about the environmental cause as you are and spread awareness. People usually like to follow clear reasoning so give significant thought to why you want to do this in the long run and try to share it with the community as well as anyone willing to engage. Sharing your work is also a small but significant way to contribute to a change in the mindset of the community.
For Earth's Sake 