Do you ever feel like you are not doing enough?
Yes, almost every day, but it comes down to what and how we prioritize.
Collective responsibility is no one's responsibility
Most of the time, we are aware that our busy lifestyles are adding a subtle burden each and every day to the environment and ecology, despite having an informed choice we can not really do anything environment-friendly. Because we struggle to move it up the priority order. This is for those who are financially capable but do not have time or for some reason they can not prioritize.
There is another vast segment of the population who are financially constrained to adapt to something that is environmentally friendly. So when it comes to making a choice they predominantly measure it on the financial parameters.
There is administrative apathy and political challenges as well. Most of the time, administrative ineffectiveness or apathy is rooted in the immediate cause and effect of a subject. If there i firre, they will rush to douse it, because it will inflict immediate pain, but those things which are happening daily basis, and accumulating to trigger a calamity one day, the local level administration is totally ignorant of it despite having a policy, and direction from the top management in a top-down hierarchy.
Source- Wikipedia
SDG-12
So there are challenges both in the approaches and attitude in the context of whether top-down or bottom-up.
The least we could do as a community is to get rid of plastic pollution. See, it's the people who are creating the plastic demand at the retail level, and the basics of demand-supply say you can not stop a supply (legal or illegal route) that has a demand above the threshold level. It is the people who have created this threshold demand for plastics on account of their ease of use, practicality, habitual disposition, ignorance, busy lifestyles, cost, etc.
Heavy population= heavy consumption,
When the consumption of 1.5 billion people(INDIA) is not informed by natural capital protection, then it will only create a colossal scale burden of waste management. That is exacerbated by administrative apathy and a lack of producer and consumer responsibility.
At the producer level, it is purely driven by the economy, the philosophy is to respond to the demand.
At the consumer level, who cares about a circular economy, as long as they have disposable income they have corresponding disposable lifestyles.
Most consumers think that, if they fix their own homes and get rid of waste (plastics and others) and throw it outside the premises, then their duty is over. But ecology does not work like that, ecology is circular in its functioning. So if the wastes and garbage are not circulated then they will be given back to mankind as a consequence of plastic pollution.
Individual responsibility must be qualified by a sense of collective responsibility.
Look how the e-commerce, packaging industry contributes to plastic pollution in India.
When we say greater penetration of internet and retail sector, and e-commerce in rural areas, we should be concerned about plastic waste management in rural areas, In the urban areas at least to some extent, it is being addressed, but in rural areas, no one cares, and eventually it diminishes soil health, and we literally consume microplastics in some form or the other.
There is an emerging health condition in India where more men are becoming impotent and women are having reproductive health issues. Arguably this is due to our lifestyle habits and plastic is one such major determinant.
Bisphenol A is leached from plastics; it disrupts the endocrine system.
Look at the tourist spots in India. Pick any of the spots where you will find disposable glass, and plastics being thrown here and there causing the degradation of eco-sensitive zones. Even the educated class does not hesitate to do this.
Plastic garbage becoming threat in Himalayan regions: Environment scientist
Right from the morning(toothbrush) to late at night, every single hour we only create demand for plastics, as a result, Plastics have already entered our food chain-- Bioaccumulation and biomagnification.
Globally 25% of the plastics wastes are never collected at all. Talking about oceans, 12 MLT plastics enter into oceans each year.
In India, 40% of plastics are single-use plastics, they cause more nuisance to the ecosystem.
India's initiative
(1) LiFE- Lifestyle for Environment
(2) Plastic Waste Management Amendment Rules, 2022--
ERP- Extended Producer Responsibility. It's welcoming to fix the responsibility equally on the producer, but what is more challenging is how do we regulate and shape individual behavior as it is open-ended-- that's the major question on plastic pollution.
Extended Producer Resposnsibility
(3) India has already banned single-use plastics with low utility but its enforcement at the local level is very poor.
Potential Solution--
(1) Japanese technology to break down plastics-- Plastic-eating bacteria
(2) LiFE should be our lifestyle code and should be a habitual disposition to adopt to a circular economy. And that begins with how we spend and consume the resources.
(3) A sense of collective responsibility-- which is much needed as a cultural renaissance in India in the context of circular economy and lifestyle habits.
(4) Reduce; Reuse; Recycle; Renew; Redesign
This is my participation for the Initiative: February Monthly Prompt
Check out the above post if you are keen to participate in a particular theme of the day.
Thank you.
Original Photography unless otherwise stated.