Material, Waste, and Recycling It’s All in Our DNA

Indian culture and recycling have a deeper connection. Since our very childhood, we have always been taught to “reduce, reuse and recycle”. One of the simplest examples that we all can relate to could be our parents getting angry at us or constantly reminding us not to waste water and not to unnecessarily keep lights on or waste electricity. We have all grown up seeing our old clothes turned into dusters. Each bit of our gifts has also been reused in some or another way like wrapping paper being kept neatly for future use, and if any container of plastic or cardboard has come with it being creatively reused.  Our kitchens are a junction of reusing items and cutleries until their maximum capacity. We love creating something new from an old pair of clothes.

Scrapping something new is just something against our DNA! Then today why are we still facing the problem of waste management and immense landfilling?

What is waste? Waste is something that in the human’s eye does not create any value. But when we can take an extra effort and create something new with an existing material that is worthless for us, this is called recycling. India has a population of 1.3 billion people and with increasing demand and limited resources, it’s high time we need to do proper waste management and recycling processes.

Today, though recycling is done in almost every household, especially the middle and poor peoples’ houses, our landfills are still going higher and with increasing demand, industrial waste, and improper waste management. We all are suffering! Amongst our wastes, plastic disposal has a major role to play. According to government figures India generates around 5.6 million tons of plastic every year. Instead of reusing it we are discarding it and polluting our land, water, and air. Exploitation and degradation of resources have been the root cause of today’s situation. Environmental issues such as global warming, pollution, and acid rain have all been the result of our deeds and today are all major concerns for all the countries.

Why should we Recycle?

Recycling can transform something worthless into something valuable. It not only gives a new life to something which already exists but also saves our resources. It offers a viable and domestic option to meet your country’s growing demand. Recycling is the way forward for a sustainable planet. Below are the points describing why we need recycling:

4. Reduces stress on the resources: Recycling creates a circular economy where dependence on the resources reduces. For an instance, we can take the example of plastic bottles. To produce one plastic bottle requires 3 liters of water and 1/4th litre of crude oil.  If we start recycling plastic, then we can save water as well as crude oil. While producing anything new, we waste a lot of energy and resources to create anything from scratch, so recycling reduces that procedure and hence we save something for our plant.
5. Saves Money: We all Indians know the value of each penny earned and it’s always wiser to create something new with an existing material than to spend money. It naturally comes to us to create something new from something as simple as a cardboard or yogurt container that can be used so many times for so many things from the kitchen to craft, it’s the magic of recycling.
6. Controls Pollution: With the increasing waste generated from each household, our landfills are increasing every single day. The moment we start recycling we can save the planet from not only being polluted but also not adding to our landfills which are a major concern now
7. Creation of Sustainable Future: Recycling creates a culture of optimal use and giving life to worthless things. This helps to keep waste out of the environment and create a healthy minimalistic ecosystem where waste is valued.
8. Job Creation: Our waste management has a lot of informal units, if recycling increases these units will have more work and create jobs, especially in local communities and rural areas which will help the economy as well as our environment. It’s a win-win situation.

What Can We Recycle

As we now know why recycling is important so now let us see what can we recycle

1.         Plastic: Bottles, bags, containers
2.         Paper: newspaper, scrap paper, magazines
3.         Metals: Cans, steel, aluminum, containers
4.         Glass: Jars and containers

 

How To Recycle

1. Creating awareness: Though in every Indian household we know what recycling is but creating awareness about exactly how to do it efficiently will make them more conscious. More campaigns and awareness programs about its benefits and need for the hour on a national and international level are necessary. Though organizations like the United Nations are doing it, more support from the national level is also needed.
2. Waste Segregation: Proper waste segregation is very important. We need to dispose of waste as biodegradable, recyclable, and non-biodegradable. When we achieve proper segregation our half battle is already won, don’t you think so?
3. Creating a formal chain of workers: There should be a formal line of workers who can pick, segregate, and send it to the factories for reuse and recycling. We all know about Kabadiwalas who take our waste, segregate and send it to factories. They should get more weightage as they help our environment in so many ways and earn peanuts. If proper training and incentives are given to these eco-warriors India will be in a much better place.
4. Individual Consciousness: Every individual has to be conscious to reuse and recycle their things from small cans to clothes, the more we recycle the more we save our planet. It’s an important lifestyle change.
5. Be Minimalistic: We all love buying new things, but the time has come to buy only when it is needed. One item bought by an individual creates a burden on the environment. We need to learn to prioritize buying eco-friendly and recyclable items. There are a lot of start-ups and companies who have now come up with Eco-friendly options, so let’s take them instead of using something which creates landfills.
6. Government Intervention: Government plays an important role in uplifting and encouraging citizens for being Eco Friendly and recycle materials. One of the best examples of Recycling is Israel, it recycles 85% of its wastewater and in the next three years, 50% of its agricultural needs would be fulfilled by recycled water. If our government takes serious steps even we can be there. Encouraging and appreciating citizens can go a long way.Thus, recycling is something we all are aware of, and we all can do it, it’s just a matter of enough motivation and proper knowledge. If we all swear by something and follow it consciously, we can save our country and our planet from filling landfills, dumping into the oceans, and climate change. I hope this article would have encouraged you to become a green citizen. Well, I would love to know your opinion on Recycling and Indian DNA. Till then go green and be safe.