Millions of commuters travel every day through metros, trains, buses, private taxis, autos and their own vehicles. Most of us have to buy something or the other while returning home. Some of us are even asked over phone to buy some groceries or some vegetables or some stationery for the child to complete homework. In residential colonies, local vegetable sellers take millions of rounds throughout the country to sell vegetables. Local shopkeepers look at our convenience as a regular customer. And the convenience is a polythene bag – a small foldable polythene bag.

The journey of polythene bags begins – from shopkeepers to our homes and from our homes to the garbage. Spills from the garbage bins and occupies roads, drainage etc. These single use polythene bags reach to the area of no return, or rather, no bio-degradation.

We pay for creating plastic waste and adding to the pollution.

Why can’t we carry our own bag, a simple cloth bag, to buy vegetables or groceries even from the local suppliers?  Why we have to depend on our convenience and comfort and accept polythene bags? Don’t we have a choice or is it that we are uncomfortable carrying a cloth/canvas bag and polythene bag looks better?

This is where, the middle-class , counted amongst the majority of Indian population can dent the plastic pollution. We stop insisting to have polythene bags to carry items. If the shopkeeper does not have, we stop expecting him to get anyhow from the nearby shop.  We stop looking only for our convenience, our comfort and our necessity. For once we look at the impact this one intentional ignorance leads to – an unintentional damage to the environment.

India currently consumes about 4 kilograms of Polythene per person, and it is expected to increase significantly during the next 25 years to almost 13 kilograms per person, as per a recent study. India is expected to add more than 18 million tonnes of polythene demand by 2041, based on population growth.

Very sadly – ultimately the demand will drive the supply of polythene bags in near future.

Going by the annual consumption of polythene bags, even if we stay away from polythene bags for a day, this is set to reduce significantly the quantum of plastic waste by as much as 25,000 tonnes.

Later, this one day can become a week and even a month. We may not feel the necessity for polythene bags for once, after few years.

Finally, one day, even Kanta Bai will also use only cloth bag for groceries.

“Manthan”, an initiative by Hindustan Zinc, is a series of stories to bring awareness about various concerns like air pollution, water pollution, plastic pollution, noise pollution, climate change, road safety and wildlife protection.

The Change begins with ME and soon becomes WE – actually just a flip of putting the foot down…

A small plastic straw might be something that comes with most beverages that we order, like juice and soft drinks. Remember how many times you have kept the straws aside and drank your drink without the straw. Once made, we use it or not, we are adding to the damage caused by these plastic straws. We are part of the people contributing towards the ‘top 10 garbage found in the ocean’. We contributed to 8.3 billion plastic straws polluting the beaches every year. Can we not drink the juice or soft-drink or cold beverage without the straw ? A lifestyle cannot cause damage to life.

Seattle becomes the first largest U.S. city to ban plastic straws, even though the US still continues to use about 500 million straws every day. Reason – Most plastic straws are too lightweight to make it through the mechanical recycling process. Return is our new addition to the ‘4R’s as part of care for the environment.

According to Forbes, about 120 billion pieces of plastic cutlery in which straws count up to the maximum, are produced in India every year. India is also making efforts to curb this pollution. According to ‘Banega Swachh India’, a 13-year-old boy from Gurgaon has replaced close to 5 Lakh Single Use Plastic Straws till today, and aims to eradicate 1 million by the end of 2018. Several parts of Maharashtra, Karnataka & Kerala have initiated campaigns to reduce the use of plastic straws by 80%, by replacing them with alternatives like bamboo straws, by the end of 2018.

Interestingly, Straws are most commonly made from type 5 plastic, or polypropylene. However, this type of plastic isn’t accepted by most curb side recycling programs. Hence, because of this difficulty, they end up in landfills & polluting our oceans, causing harm to both water and marine life.

The small size of plastic straws makes it dangerous to seabirds, as they misunderstand it for food, and ingest it. According to BBC, several researchers do not agree to the concept of reusable straws, as they present hygiene concerns to people. Some of these concerns include remaining saliva, chewed teeth marks and the spread of illness & diseases because of bad oral hygiene.

Straws on an average weigh 0.42 grams. All the plastic straws in the world that ultimately end up in the ocean, add up to 2,000 tons. Packaging Solutions Giant, Tetra Pak alone produces over 25 billion straws every year. Tetra Pak is developing ‘Paper Straws’ by the end of 2018, to reduce plastic pollution. Plastic straws are the 6th most common type of garbage found in the world.

If we can say NO to STRAWS, who do we want us to tell. Can HZL be the first corporate to REFUSE the use of plastic straws and RETURN to the vendor? It is just a matter of one thought, one decision and one NO.

Under Samadhan Project, 426 farmers at Chittorgarh were taught advanced technologies in farming and horticulture and breed improvement in their cattle through artificial insemination. This event was carried out at Dagla ka Kheda village wherein, out of 16 villages, 5 farmers were given spray machines, 250 farmers were provided with insecticides for the maize crops and 50 farmers were given organic fertilizers. Each farmer present was also given 5 containers to hold fruits and vegetables, 55 farmers cultivating rain-fed crops were provided with 2 kgs of ‘vermus’, 17 farmers of new badi were given 50 saplings each of apple-plum, 4 farmers were given 50 saplings of custard apple, 80 farmers with low fertile lands were given 20 saplings of apple-plum, farmers who reared cattle were given 90 kgs of fodder for the ‘sirohi’ goats and a separate manger was provided to them.

Under Samadhan Project, total 2000 farmers at Ajmer, Bhilwara, Chittorgarh, Rajsamand and Udaipur districts of Rajasthan are getting benefitted from improved agriculture and livestock. Hindustan Zinc Samadhan Project aims to improve productivity and earnings of farmers and their families with the help of land and livestock.