My challenge of waste management

I am a staunch proponent of minimising use of plastic and was quite enthused by “Dubai Can” initiative that sought to limit use of single-use plastic drinking water bottles. Since I work in a multi-speciality clinic with a Day care surgery Centre, the personnel work round the clock in shifts and there are large number of patients’ attendants that visit the Centre every day.

Drinking water is an essential requirement and I see boxes and boxes of 300ml plastic bottles being unloaded at all times of the day. In addition, there are multiple water dispensers that devour plastic glasses by dozens. And then, in the evening the disposal of hundreds of emptied bottles and crushed glasses presents a disturbing sight.

Energised by the initiative, I decided to put in my two bits to the national effort and put forth a plan to my colleagues. It involved installing a small glass-locker at the water dispenser in our common area.

We agreed to do away with drinking from disposable plastic bottles that each one of us kept in our consultation rooms and decided to walk to the dispenser, use just one plastic glass in the morning, keep it in one’s locker, use it multiple times and discard it only at the end of working time.

My pitch further emphasised benefits of regular strolls to the dispenser (at least four times a day) that would go a long way in preventing adverse influence of prolonged sitting and, also, facilitate social interaction at the water-point.

Though there was early reluctance, but it was largely a successful enterprise and as a believer in evidence-based medicine, I kept a keen count. I announced to my impressed management that just eight of us waste-warriors had saved nearly a hundred plastic bottles in a month.

I turned an instant celebrity who was invited as an ‘Expert’ on curtailing plastic use and to promote this simple yet ‘path-breaking’ change of habit among personnel. The trend caught on and most of us saw the obvious ease, plain practicality and significant savings-plastic and monetary- that accrued from this minor adjustment.

Some of my colleagues with an entrepreneurial streak made a YouTube video and complemented it with a sermonic lecture, inviting numerous likes.

Another entrepreneur decided to capitalise on the increasing ‘footfalls’ at the water dispenser to install a notice board that could be used to advertise sale of various items such as an old vacuum cleaner, a cooking oven, a tennis racket or even a car. In no time we were advising other verticals of our parent company to follow suit and results were encouraging.

I turned a minor ‘Star’ and soaked all admiration with humility, as my lectures expounding the virtues of restricted use of disposable plastic began being received enthusiastically. Importantly, it was heartening to see those piles of water bottle boxes in our clinic begin to reduce in height and their consumption diminish drastically.

I was invited by an editor friend to share my experience in his newspaper and prepared a write up.

Wives are the most honest and most ruthless critics of their husbands and I, as a principle, always take my wife’s opinion before I embark on any such writing exercise. She went through the piece but left me unnerved by absence of even a faint approbation in her eyes.

“Why do you guys waste so many plastic glasses every day? Just carry your own water bottle. Why keep the water cooler running the whole day and waste electricity? So much fossil fuel goes in to generating electricity? I and my friends have been carrying our cool water bottles for ages and have completely done away with plastic.

Just use one water dispenser for refills. Anyway, the write up is OK and since you have promised your friend, I will not stop you from sending it. However, I am against the practice, and you should stop it forthwith.”

This was the write up.

Dr Rakesh Maggon is a specialist ophthalmologist with an interest in literature