Banishing Polythene: Can we take small step towards creation of eco-friendly environment?

Today I was given invitation for attending a seminar on creating awareness among people against use of polythene. The seminar was organized by Cybotech Campus (my college) and chaired by the vice-president of our college, Abhijit Sir. The theme was to make a human chain outside the college, give jute handbags to people and create awareness among them about the severe consequences polythene causes to our environment. 

We all know polythene is dangerous for our environment and somewhere in our minds it seldom hits that we shouldn’t use it. In the past many awareness program has been organized to make people avoid use of polythene as much as possible. You also read in newspaper that once or twice in a year, government official wake-up from the sleep and start fining the shops which provide goods in polythene. Still the ground reality isn’t changing. Why?

Effect of plastic/polythene on environment:

• Chlorinated plastic releases harmful chemicals to soil which then pollutes ground water.
• Greenhouse gas like Methane is released when plastic is broken down or burnt.
• Plastics are also responsible for suffocation death or death by unintentional digestion of land and aquatic animals.
• They are non-degradable and take around 400 years to get decomposed.
• It is estimated that around 60-100 million barrels of petroleum is consumed in producing plastics/polythene.

 

How can the use of polythene be minimized at ground level? Once Mahesh Bhatt (filmmaker) said, “We add adult scene in the movies because of its demand.” Well obviously everyone is free to express his/her views in our country. In this context I carry a different view which is, “If you won’t show, people will not see. Look at records of 80’s or 90’s, movies with better scripts and story line (without adult scene) make record hits at box office, so isn’t that a demand?” You will soon get why did I mentioned the filmmaker comment here on this blog. Here in the case of banishing polythene, we can see that people use polythene just because of its supply. Blaming common man or shopkeeper will not work, they use it perforcely. If it will not be supplied or any alternate solution is given then no one will use it. There is no other option available to shopkeepers for selling unmanufactured products without using polythene. Just by creating awareness among people to use jute handbags will definitely be effective but it will not be sufficient to bring a change at major level. So how can we change this scene and make a better environment? Instead of imposing fine on shopkeepers, government should ban firms from manufacturing polythene. Eliminating it at the source itself is the only solution I can see to change the whole statistics. I am not advocating about shutting down of the firms but to provide them alternate solution which will not affect the environment as much as polythene do. The firm who produces polythene can manufacture paper-bags. Nowadays paper-bags can hold upto 5 kg of weight if handled carefully. That much of strength is sufficient to lend unmanufactured goods, rest of the weight can be put on the jute handbag. Producing paper-bags instead of polythene will prevent firm from getting shut-down and people working in it lose their job. The man on the cycle who used to sell polythene from manufacturer to shopkeeper will then sell the paper-bags thus his employment is also guaranteed under this initiative. NGOs which run such awareness program should make a delegation of eminent people to meet ministers and the owner of polythene manufacturing firm. They can provide them idea about alternate solution. It has the scope of bringing big change in our environment. 

The problem is not that we don’t have solution, the problem is that we don’t take initiative for solving it. Today we are so dependent on plastic bags that we cannot eliminate it completely but steps can be taken to minimize the number till much extent. I with the help of my blog urge the readers (whosoever reads it) to carry jute bags while going to purchase vegetables or wherever possible. Atleast you can prevent yourself from using polythene while purchasing vegetables. You should not feel ashamed while carrying such bags instead you should feel proud that you are taking small step towards creation of eco-friendly environment.