Life Plastic Perilously??

As kids, all the plastic we got to see were the raincoat an odd toy, or tiffin box in school. The plastic mania hadn't hit full on, in fact, I never saw much of it till the 80s, and then, boom, there was plastic everywhere. Almost every stuff was magically transformed into plastic, old metal tins, glass, earthenware soon lost its charm and made a quiet exit, as we were quickly transported to the world of plastic forever.
Today, there is a virtual overkill by plastic in the markets flooded with industrial, commercial and household plastics, everything from kitchenware, tableware, ovenware, containers, bottles, mugs, jugs, buckets, mats, pots, ropes, brooms, planters and the most loved of all ‘plastic bag’, provided generously with every purchase, the most popular .22mm slimy bag from grocer's, with extras on request. Once upon a time milk sachets were carefully washed and sold as scrap. We have a zillion uses of bags from stocking veggies and groceries preserving clothes, bags, books, shoes, toys and many treasured junk laboured over years, and are finally laid to rest as garbage bin liners, while pretty coloured variety are cleverly crafted into bags. We can now safely say we have junked cloth for good. And then there are carry bags galore from fancy departmental stores, which come with appliances, apparels, jewellery or groceries, a craze cutting across class, as the snobbery of high society comes to fore as they flash their Harrods, Vuitton, Dior, Gucci's, painstaking collection from foreign travels. Height of vanity!!!
By now, we could create another universe with all the plastic we have accumulated. Rather, if we were to take the plastic out of 1 billion homes, we could surely pave length and breadth of roads across the country, freely.
Once food containers, storage bins, tiffin boxes came in shiny steel, bell metal and brassware, till Tupperware and its many indigenous cousins killed it. Now everything from spice containers, ovenware, tableware, are all recreated in plastic. I personally hate eating out of plastic with the lingering after taste of dish washing liquid. Restaurant take away containers, not particularly food grade; but we aren't too bothered about quality either, empty coke and mineral water bottles, jams, pickles, oil cans are all laboriously cleaned and saved for future use, though you have hoarded dangerous proportion of stock. You never know when you need them, goes the quirky logic.
Plastic covers is just another fond fetish we harbour. We are the only people who drive around cars with seats wrapped in plastic, where everything from dining tables, sofa, settees, refrigerator, washing machine, TV, mixer grinder, oven, computer, TV remote, mobiles, smart or otherwise are dressed lovingly in plastic be it plain or printed, get your choice. Ideally we would have encased our whole house in one big plastic.
Use and throw is another fad that took us by storm. The advent of disposables in diapers, wipes, tissues, napkins party, picnic, crockery, cutlery, to puja and pandal decoration deluged us. We embraced them all and now we love our Styrofoam world. Our trash cans are increasingly flooded, garbage dump yards exhausted, our rivers and seas polluted, forests destroyed, environment irreparably damaged, but, do we care anyway ??? We have converted ourselves into one big market for global players in the business. In fact our changing lifestyle render life exceedingly plasticine, and our relationships equally disposable. Evidently there are no effective government checks or regulations in place here so consumption plastic is unabated and production indiscriminate.
In a bid to aquire healthy lifestyle, our new craze is organic in food, fabric, toiletries, medicines and more ( ironically all of which are packaged in plastic) but, sadly we continue to neglect our planet causing ecological destruction, when in fact we have got no other place to live other than earth.
Ecologists and environmentalists have been baying hoarse about the consequential ecological and environmental damage, but, we couldn't care less. It's just one of the fetishism they harbour or ecology and environment.Our motto: Live by today. Who is to see the tomorrows. Posterity may well be damned.
I know we cannot undo it all and go back in time but I know we can definitely restrict, curtail, reduce the use of plastic in many ways. Information and education go a long way in reducing the spiraling demand for plastic. Start in small ways- junk the carry bag, stop the use of styrofoam, thermocol, polystyrene disposables at house parties and weddings. Try biodegradable products, reuse, recycle far as possible. Good old banana leaves at weddings and functions served us well. Restrict and use only what you have to, when and how much you really need to. Stop stocking up in plastic, try alternatives, our ancestors lead healthy and longer lives without all that you and I've used. Read up on better alternatives, get informed, get educated, to make an informed choice. Break the chain spread the word and it gets easy. And you have done your bit.


.