Caring for the environment

By Ladislaus Louis D’Souza

Mumbai: Seventy-four years after Independence from foreign rule, India is saddled with a monumental modern problem — disposal of the multifarious garbage.

The two-pronged issue is care for the environment and the practicalities of garbage disposal at various levels. The resolution of the issue involves unlearning the way we look at garbage and its disposal, with a view to contributing towards the environmental good.

For long has the issue of non-biodegradable garbage dominated the garbage disposal scene both domestically and internationally. The endless lockdown and the unending opening have thrown up lots of ideas about recycling and disposal of unwanted stuff, particularly non-biodegradable items. The internet is flooded with novel experiments of individuals and groups on waste disposal.

Participants of a neighborhood “Local Waste Management Workshop” organized by a private cooperative housing society for its members in collaboration with the eco-cell of a parish were asked to come prepared with practical ideas and suggestions.

They were also asked to bring along something concrete to express a concept effectively. Varied kind of waste was brought along and various ideas from recycling to composting were thrown up: raw food waste for compost; old unwanted clothes made re-wearable or converted into things of daily use; flowers from plastic bottles and what not.

By far, what really made an impact on the gathering was the presentation by a young animation professional. It concerned stuffing used plastic bottles of any size with waste that stood no chance of degrading or disintegrating.

To help ascertain the difference between biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste the youth clarified as follows:

In biodegradable, with its root grad, “to step or move,” and its prefix de-“downward,” we get an adjective describing things that can be broken down into basic substances through normal environmental processes. While animal and plant products are biodegradable, mineral substances such as metal, glass and plastic are not. Newly developed biodegradable plastics are now beginning to appear in various products.

However, “biodegradable” products can vary greatly in how long they take to break down. Bread, for example, may take barely a fortnight to degrade, and paper could vanish in a couple of months, while certain “biodegradable” plastic milk or egg cartons could take several years.

The youngman then passed around the three stuffed bottles that he had brought along, all three sealed for obvious reasons! But being transparent, one could see tightly packed into those bottles plastic bags and empty plastic or foil tablet sachets, discarded u-clips, staple-pins and clothes-pegs, bottle-caps and labels from bottles, toothbrushes and empty toothpaste tubes, used Tea-lights, discarded masks and gloves – the list could go on.

Then, asking the gathering to fetch him an empty bottle and whatever waste they had that was to be disposed off, he picked up a stick lying nearby and within no time stuffed a massive amount of discarded non-biodegradable stuff into that bottle with room to spare! And now the piece de resistance!

“Well,” said the youth, “any questions on this ‘stuffed bottle’ project?” A participant instantly stood up and asked, “In the first place, why stuff non-biodegradable waste into empty plastic bottles at all?” Another wanted to know: “What do we ultimately do with all these stuffed bottles?” From the first visual in the slide show that followed, participants learnt of how sturdy garden walls were being constructed with discarded bottles stuffed with waste.

“And look at this,” pointing to the next slide, “an entire house built with walls comprising of stuffed bottles of varying sizes! Tell me, friends, do you now believe that there is no limit to the amount of waste that can be stuffed into empty plastic bottles?” “Yes!!” was the unanimous response. “Then you will be surprised that there is also no limit to what you can do with those stuffed bottles, if you can only put on your thinking caps and think really hard!”

There is no gainsaying that, even if we decide to discard the stuffed bottles along with the rest of our garbage, the municipality will have no difficulty disposing them off appropriately. In the process, we will have done ourselves two huge favors. One, we will have saved our country’s drains and nullahs from dangerous toxic blockades that lead to stormwater accumulation which eventually leads to flooding in the monsoons. Second, we will, in the long run, have learnt how to actively contribute towards saving the environment!

It is great to remember what Alvin Toffler, an American writer, once said: “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.”