The Swachh Bharat or the Clean India drive is a great opportunity and all Indian citizens should be part of it. It is about time that people actually look around them and evaluate how much they throw away, whether it was necessary and how much of it could have been reused or repaired. It is high time that we cut down the amount of trash that we produce.
In fact, the problem with cleanliness or lack thereof, is the assumption that it is the duty of someone else. That is where the issue lies. It shouldn’t, because it is everyone’s duty.
At home, we can keep a small compost pit in a mud flower pot by using day-to-day organic kitchen wastes and newspapers. We can use both sides of a paper and recycle as much as possible. As we usually simply throw medicines and battery cells in the garbage bins, instead, we can discard them as chemical waste to avoid bitter effects on the soil. We can also use rechargeable batteries rather than using disposable ones and buy items that are packaged in recycled cartons.
We should only buy what is needed, reusable or refillable products. There are so many things that we can do to help make this drive successful. We could keep a cloth bag whenever grocery shopping, instead of using a polythene bag. Similarly, we can drink our juice at the vendor, instead of buying a bottle and throwing it on the road, and instead of ordering take away, we can eat at the restaurant.
In the US, the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) national program has a system called ‘Pay-As-You-Throw’, in which each household pays for their garbage collection by the amount of trash that they produce, rather than paying a flat fee. That is an excellent idea to motivate individuals to reduce their garbage.
It is our responsibility to clean up our land and it does not end with cleaning up our neighbourhood only. It starts with making wise choices, as we create so much trash in the first place, and ends with making sure that the trash we do produce gets disposed properly.
- The reader is an Indian pupil based in Dubai
