like each year the impending world environment day on 2018 is being awaited with fervour and gusto among non governmental organisations, governments and communities across the globe. With this year’s theme being completely in sync with the most severe environmental challenge of plastic pollution, an unparalleled number of people in the developing societies have been mobilised into this modern day crusade against plastic. For decades an overwhelming number of land and marine animal species have become neglected victims of plastic and polythene consumption. The non-biodegradable character of plastics has been making it an inseparable element of the river beds, ocean and soil --in fact the entire ecosystem. This grave issue has triggered immense consternation among people relatively recently however. Thanks to the mainstream as well as social media, which through the visual demonstrations of plastic induced animal deaths and publicity of plastic pollution surveys and studies, have made the whole anti plastic campaign extremely democratic and widespread. For the first time many Indian cities have witnessed a collective action from activists and residents alike, of segregating plastic waste and adopting more organic alternatives by curbing the use of bags and utility articles made of plastic.
Despite the overt voicing of plastic sponsored environmental menace, its extensive use as utility kitchen items and food packaging, continues unabated
In most households and commercial setups. Scores of people are unaware how they end up ingesting toxic chemicals, bleeding from plastics, as they dip plastic cutlery into hot foods and store heated food items in plastic containers. It is a dangerous yet standard practice among people of reusing mineral water bottles.
The most concerning aspect of plastic abuse remains its dominance in the kids product market as well. Parcelling hot school time meals for children is regularly being done in most households. Tiffin boxes and water bottles with catchy cartoons are abundantly being advertised in the market. This portrays the general lack of awareness among most people despite all the drum beating around the hazards of plastic. Studies have long suggested a link between exposure to plasticisers and childhood asthma, but now the more recent studies have reported that there is even an increased risk before birth.
The plastic items recklessly dumped as waste by many of us just lay there unable to be digested by the natural forces and harm the fertility of soil while contaminating and choking our rivers. The toxins from plastics drain out and seep into groundwater, flowing downstream into lakes and rivers and eventually into the oceans. Once it accumulates in the marine animals, it naturally enters the human system through consumption. Hence a rigid cycle forms though which plastic ends up entering the entire food chain as well as ecosystem.
Here what we fail to understand is that a substance which can not be metabolised by the natural forces and which continues to lay undecomposed in the environment, can never ever be metabolised by our own body. No wonder the plastic chemicals cause carcinogens to be released in our bodies.
As we organise several meet ups, workshops and events to celebrate this World Environment Day, let us also contemplate on how to spread the word to include even those who are still alienated from this awareness chorus. As we discard our plastic cups and spoons, we have to ensure that the community helpers, with whom we are engaging on a routine basis, are also doing the same. Maintaining a target group of few people and regularly sensitising them systematically and simply regarding the health hazards of plastic use, is an onus on each one of us. I was pleasantly surprised the other day on seeing a community of rural women who had created multi pocketed cloth bags, selling them at grocery stores in several localities in Bengaluru. We actually need more such initiatives and massive encouragement from people as the marketing capacity of such small help groups and entrepreneurs is limited. The environment and human resource are our shared heritage, which we have to collectively preserve. Spreading the awareness here is like decentralising the entire anti plastic campaign and is in the true spirit of democracy. let us hope that this World Environment Day, many more people join the initiative toward removing plastic from everyday life. Each day has to be perceived with the spirit of the environment day, for an unbridled effort towards plastic eradication from the nature and human system.
(The writer is a former government official and a budding environmentalist)