Don't waste the Waste..!

Well… we all have heard, talked or read about the three R's - Reduce, Reuse and Recycling. There is nothing new about them, isn’t it?! But we hardly implement them in our day-to-day life. And that may be because we don’t know or understand the necessity to implement them and about their outcomes. What the R’s are for..?

Nashik is fast growing city. And like any other developing city, our municipal corporation is facing countless challenges due to increase in urban populations such as crowding, transportation, traffic, slums, water supply, power shortages, drainage, and above all, pollution. Pollution is the result of many variables. While air pollution and water quality get maximum share of attention, one pollution source that is largely ignored, though it often stares us in the face is Solid Waste.

Solid waste is defined as non-liquid material that no longer has any value to the person disposing it. Commonly known as garbage, rubbish or trash. Solid Waste Management (SWM) is usually the largest budget item for cities, especially in developing countries. Uncollected solid waste is often the leading contributor to local flooding, air & water pollution and can have an enormous impact on health, local environment as well as on the economy. As cities become larger, consumption of goods and services increases leading to more & more waste. Nashik generates about 450 tons/day of waste. That will be roughly around 165 Metric tons/year. Guess what will be the waste generation of whole world. We need to look at SWM quite seriously now onwards.

This is Garbage Dumping yard of Nashik located near 'Pandavleni'. Everyday, whatever Garbage Vans pick up, is dumped over here. Forget the sight, but it generates terrible smell which one can not stand even for few minutes. To add fuel to the fire, corporation started burning the garbage to create more space for more ‘garbage’, thus making it one of the most polluted area! Basically, Burning or Incineration of waste is not a solution at all! 'Worsening the waste' is what I call it! Burning releases very poisonous & harmful invisible gases Dioxins which are dangerous to human as well as birds & animals. In simple words, burning your waste will result in Landfills in the Sky. With all these, the residential area is not very far from the place. Almost all nearby societies complain about the smoke and smell from the site. The picture speaks for itself. There are people working in this horrible condition for management of this huge amount of garbage, which is increasing day by day. And most of all, the waste management is taking away huge amount of taxpayer's money.

Dumping or Land-filling is the most commonly used method for waste control in developing countries, with many of the dumps in the developing world being open dumps and unsanitary landfills, polluting nearby aquifers, water bodies and human settlements.

How much amount of garbage must be here? Guess... My camera couldn't cover every corner even in it's wide angle. Please see the following image full screen. And just try to compare the height of a human standing in blue outfit near the rising smoke with the height of the garbage mountain...

With no proper planning for waste disposal in place, there is no surprise that our precious but easy resources are over exploited and garbage mountains are being increasingly seen everywhere and the residents are slow-poisoned by the emissions of the burning.

Keeping our cities clean begins with each one of us. When we walk down the streets in our cities we see litter all around us - sometimes garbage bins have more litter around them than inside them. It is so easy to blame the litter and accuse paper, plastics, tin foil and food waste for making our environment dirty and unhealthy. But does paper, plastics, tin, foil and food waste appear magically on our streets and in our neighbourhoods? No, it’s thrown away and disposed of irresponsibly by each one of us!

Waste management in our cities continues to be a problem due to our littering habits and inadequate waste management systems. If we as responsible citizens use and dispose of waste correctly, we can contribute to protecting our environment, conserving natural resources and keeping our cities clean. A waste reduction strategy must be incorporated by each of us whether at home or at work by following the 4R's principle. Yes! Lets add one more R before rest of them.

REFUSE : I think, this is more important principle than the rest 3R. Refuse the single use or disposable products. Items with unnecessary complex packaging can also be refused and to see what can be deleted from our shopping list!

REDUCE : The best way to manage waste is to not produce it. This can be done by shopping carefully and being aware of our choices. Ex. at work, one can cut down on paper use. At home you can begin by purchasing things with lesser packaging, more durable & refillable items, carry your own shopping bag, avoid disposable items and reduce the use of plastics. 

REUSE : It makes economic and environmental sense to reuse products. Sometimes it takes creativity. You can reuse old bottles, jars as storage bins and buy reusable items rather than disposable ones.

RECYCLE : It is a series of steps that takes a used material & processes, re-manufactures and sells it as a new product. Segregate your waste for better disposal and purchase recycled/green products. A ton of paper from recycled material conserves about 7,000 gallons of water, 17-31 trees, 60 lb of air pollutants and 4,000 KWh of electricity. 

The four R's - all help not only to cut down on the amount of waste we throw away, but they also conserve natural resources, landfill space & energy.
Plus, the these R's save the soil or land and money used for landfills.

How?

We can sell unwanted newspapers, glass bottles, old electronic items to the raddiwallas and kabadiwallas (waste traders) - because there is a value in them. There is value too in the waste we dispose of everyday. We can unleash this value only if each household separates its waste into wet and dry. Then may be, we'll all come to know : Waste is actually a resource!

Wet Waste: Food, vegetable peels, egg shells and other organic materials. These are easily biodegradable and can break down and become compost or soil within a short period. Therefore, this waste should go into a compost pit. You can build your own vermi-compost pit in your colony/home and convert all wet waste into useful compost. This would reduce the pressure on our landfills also.

Dry Waste: Paper, plastics, tin, foil, glass, cloth and other materials that do not biodegrade. These materials can be recycled and made into useful products.

Better administration and public infra-structure are an immediate necessity in lower income countries. Most importantly, public attitude needs to be changed as soon as possible. And the change should start from oneself. Unless there is a shift towards a more responsible attitude, no enduring solution is possible. Public education that informs people of options to reduce waste, increase recycling and composting are a good starting point. There is also a need for the design of longer-lasting and reusable products. Municipalities can encourage people to form groups, segregate waste and process it at their end. Repairing, donating, selling and reusing products when possible, especially in the case of e-waste, is also essential. For example, only 5% of India’s electronic waste gets recycled due to absence of proper infrastructure and legislation. And last but not least, each & everyone of us should make an sincere effort to Refuse, Reduce, Reuse And Recycle..!

Today is 5th Anniversary of Gifting Trees. Let us join hands to reduce the load on dumping yard. We all must have a goal of reducing the amount of waste going into landfills by 40 percent. Everyone can help meet this goal and save natural resources, energy and money by following the four R's. Reducing waste also means conserving our limited resources. 

Plastic : A Boon or Bane?

Whether you are aware of it or not, plastics play a big part in our day-to-day life. Plastic is used in everything from cell phone parts to doll parts and from soft drink bottles to the refrigerators they are stored in. More clothing is made out of polyester and nylon, both plastics, than cotton or wool. It’s used in food packaging, as building materials and most of our electronic devices. We wrap stuff in it and even eat or cook in it. From medical devices that keep blood flowing, joints moving and heart beating to impact-resistant vehicle parts, plastic saves lives every day. From the vehicle you ride to the television you watch; plastics are everywhere around us… quite literally!

Very few inventions in modern history have been as successful as plastic. It has resistance to corrosion & chemicals, low electrical & thermal conductivity, high strength-to-weight ratio, colours available in a wide variety, transparent, resistance to shock, good durability, low cost, easy to manufacture, resistant to water and so on. Due to which, the uses of plastic have grown exponentially huge in growing range of applications, especially over the past couple of decades. 

Plastic is everywhere not because it was better than the natural counterparts it replaced, but because it was lighter and cheaper; so much cheaper, in fact, that it was easier to justify throwing it away after use. Customers found this single-use or disposable plastic convenient, and businesses were happy to sell them a new plastic container for every beverage or sandwich they bought. Starting from a biscuit to chips to grocery, each & every eatable comes wrapped in plastic. People often leave stores with dozens of plastic bags that just get thrown away. 

But what happens to that beverage bottle or food container or shopping bag after we are done? It is disposed of as garbage, which eventually ends up in landfills or oceans or burnt. There it remains indefinitely.

The accumulation of plastic material in the Earth's environment is known as Plastic pollution. Plastic has toxic pollutants that damage the environment and cause land, water, and air pollution; adversely affecting wildlife, wildlife habitat and humans too!

Households generate maximum plastic waste, of which water & soft drink bottles form a large number. Very less of the total plastic waste is being recycled. Some plastics have fibres which shorten with every time it is recycled. Thus, a plastic can be recycled only few times before it is no longer recyclable. Such plastic ultimately finds their way to landfills or dumping yards.

Overuse of plastic is the main cause of plastic pollution. But it doesn’t decompose, and it releases an incredible amount of toxins into the air & water if they’re burned. It can take hundreds or even thousands of years for plastic to break down, so the damage to the environment is long-lasting.

But, does plastic ever break down?

No one exactly knows how long plastic takes to break down, but it is believed to take hundreds or even thousands of years.

Most plastic items never fully disappear; they just get smaller and smaller (Microplastics). According to a recent report, plastic fragments have been found in the digestive tracts of animals in Mariana trench, the deepest part of the oceans. It is not just the accumulation of plastics that harms the environment - it is also the fragments and toxins released during decomposition that pollute our soil and water. Many of these tiny plastic particles are swallowed by farm animals or fish who mistake them for food. Surprisingly, plastic have also found their way onto our dinner plates. They’ve also been found in a majority of the world’s tap water. The findings illustrate how incredibly wide humanity’s impact on the planet has become. We are almost trapped in plastics. 

The seas near Mumbai and Kerala are among the worst polluted in the world. Plastic debris affects at least 267 species worldwide, including 86% of all sea turtle species, 44% of all seabird species, and 43% of all marine mammal species. If current trends continue, our oceans could contain more plastic than fish by 2050.

By clogging sewers and providing breeding grounds for mosquitoes and pests, plastic waste - especially plastic bags - can increase the transmission of vector-borne diseases like malaria or dengue.

In addition to harming plants, animals, and people, it costs billions of rupees every year for cleanup of areas exposed to plastic toxins. Many regions have seen a decrease in tourism because of the amount of pollution in their environment, which can have a serious impact on local economies.

Our Earth is drowning in plastic pollution. While plastic has many valuable uses, we have become addicted to single-use or disposable plastic - which have severe environmental consequences.

Are there any Solutions to the Plastic Pollution?

Unfortunately, we can’t remove or ban plastic completely. But we can definitely reduce the disposable plastic use. We, consumers can help fix the problem by making an effort to reduce plastic waste by using reusable bags while shopping. We have to change how we source our food (like buying more at local markets and from farmers), and to make retailers change their food sourcing practices (without plastic packaging). Likewise, drinking from a reusable water bottle instead of a disposable one, avoiding to-go containers like coffee-shops cups, straws and restaurants containers, avoiding to buy household products packed in plastic etc are great ways. After reducing plastic use as much as possible, one can send plastic to recycle. Jars, milk jugs, bottles, broken plastic housewares and even items like ink cartridges can be recycled. The waste-traders will be happy to do that and you will be delighted to make some money.

Even small changes in your day-to-day life can add up and greatly reduce the amount of plastic waste in the environment.

Plastic pollution has a big impact on the environment, but plastic waste isn’t unavoidable. Every time you make the choice to avoid or recycle plastic products, you lower the risk of environmental damage. Be conscious of your choices, and encourage those around you to think twice before they throw away plastic or buy unnecessary plastic items.

Waste is everybody's responsibility. A waste reduction strategy can be incorporated by each of us whether at home or at work by following the Reduce - Reuse - Recycle principle. This will not only reduce the amount of solid waste going to landfill, but turn waste into a resource & also save our fast depleting natural resources.

We need to slow the flow of plastic at its source, but we also need to improve the way we manufacture, use, recycle and how we manage our plastic waste to minimize its impact on our environment. Because right now, a lot of it ends up in the environment.

Remember, Plastic is the symptom. Our littering habits and irresponsible attitude towards waste generation is the disease. Plastics do not litter, We do!