Zero Waste in India - Explored

A movement named zero waste has become very popular as a way to deal with the ever-present problems of sustainability and climate change. Zero-waste is the process of getting rid of all trash, especially plastic that only needs to be used once. Most of the time, we think of zero-waste as a hipster trend that requires buying all the right things. This is not true. The first zero-waste principle is to buy less. When you buy less, you use less.

Indian Culture And Zero Waste

In India, people still use metal tiffin boxes to carry food and snacks, tea is served in glass cups on the street, fruits and vegetables are bought at markets and put into cloth bags, water is stored in ceramic jugs and drunk from a shared cup, and rice, biscuits, and dried fruit are sold in large quantities on the street. There are many things that remind us that the world used to work before plastic bags and bottles were everywhere.

We know that the "nature" of trash changes as people get wealthier and move to cities. More plastic, paper, metal, and other non-biodegradable (dry) waste is made in homes than biodegradable (wet) waste. The amount of trash people make per person also goes up. Many of the country's cities are already on a path where the amount of trash is growing at an exponential rate.

Read More:- Wood Comb V/S Plastic Comb, Which is Better?

When the first Municipal Solid Wastes Rules were announced in 2000, they were based on the idea that trash had to be collected, moved, and then thrown away in safe landfills. This idea is common in most countries. The goal was to "clean" cities by getting rid of trash in our area.

But this policy didn't work in the real world, and trash got worse in our cities. What the city couldn't pick up or move because it didn't have enough services messed up our neighbourhoods. What was collected was dumped, and "mountains" of shame can be seen today.

So We're Good? Right? No!

Even though these ways to use less plastic are still around. Still, people use a lot of plastic, which is a big problem for the country. A study from 2012 says that India makes 26,000 tonnes of plastic waste every day, or 9,490,000 tonnes a year. This makes it the 15th biggest plastic polluter in the world. Every day, 10,000 tonnes of plastic trash are not picked up . People often throw away plastic trash, which ends up on country roads, in rivers, and in makeshift garbage dumps all over the country. Even though 94% of this plastic trash could be recycled, there is no system in place to handle it 

Read More: Amazing Hacks To Reduce Your Trash

The amount of plastic trash in the world is a big problem. Plastic does a lot of damage whether it is thrown away, recycled, burned, or just thrown on the ground. Plastic bags and bottles take between 10 and 1000 years to break down, and in that time, they have terrible effects on the planet. We have all seen plastic on land and in water, as well as pictures of animals whose growth was stunted by plastic. Plastic not only gives off toxins as it breaks down, but it also gives off a lot of toxins when it is burned, and toxins seep out of plastic in landfills and into the groundwater (3). Almost as bad is the plastic we can't see. Micro-plastic, which is made up of tiny pieces of plastic, can kill animals at all levels of the food chain. Growing from the smallest plankton all the way up to the fish that animals and people eat. As our population grows, these problems get worse, but there are ways to deal with them.

So What's The Solution?

Stepping back to the old "reduce, reuse, recycle" mantra, we must first cut down on how much we use. Zero-waste is important because each person's choices can lower the amount of plastic waste that is used. People are switching from using plastic water bottles that have to be thrown away to using bottles that can be used over and over again. Many women around the world have switched from disposable to reusable sanitary napkins. People use clothes with beeswax on them instead of plastic wraps, and they buy in bulk to cut down on waste. How we use and buy things has a big effect on the amount of trash we make.

People can make changes on their own, but the government has also taken steps to stop people from using single-use plastic. In June 2018, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that single-use plastics would be banned by 2022. This step should make a big difference in India's efforts to use less plastic. There are a lot of signs about plastic-free zones and news stories about how to use less plastic. I have already seen what this ban has done in Tamil Nadu. Paper or metal straws are always used in juices and lassies. When you go shopping, you are usually given a cloth bag, and people smile when you ask for no plastic with any purchase.

We are in an exciting time of growth, when city managers and leaders are rethinking how to deal with waste. Niti Aayog and the Centre for Science and Environment are working together to make a book about the best practises of "waste-wise" cities. This book will be used as a new way to learn and teach. This is what needs to be done, and lots of it. This is a real chance to make a change.

Who We Are?

GoingZero is a project that promotes business practises that are honest and good for the environment. GoingZero is an online store with more than 2,000 products and more than 80 conscious sellers. Its goal is to get rid of plastic and animal cruelty from the things we use every day. Every programme that aims to reduce trash in places that are hard on the environment is helped by every product that is bought through GoingZero.

If you deal with climate anxiety, you can anytime join our community and see there are positive developments also happening to save this planet.

For more details follow our official channels.

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