Break Free From Plastic Pollution

By Mehboob Inamdar

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: Plastic is being used for the packing of various products in our day today’s life. The usage has become so widespread that, it is polluting and harming the environment and biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation. The waste also affects the health of human beings, water bodies and the food chain. This burdens economic activities and contributes to climate change.

According to sources, the Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar Municipal Corporation (CSMC) collects around 450 metric tonnes of garbage in the city daily. Out of this is 100 metric tonnes of non-recyclable plastic waste.

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Gauri Mirashi (Co-founder of Ecosattva) said that the efforts being taken to tackle the waste management problem of the city appear to be proving insufficient.

“We have been working in solid waste management for the last ten years. It seems that we are behind the schedule. We should have achieved the target so far. Segregation and recovery of waste is continuous work. Now, it's time to reduce the usage of plastic. Today, single chapple is available in hotels. One use for one time and throw it in the garbage. We need to think whether we really need these things. Not just plastic, there is also the problem of textile in which synthetic fibre is used,” she said. Gauri Mirashi said the cost of maintaining health is also increasing because of extreme events like rain, air pollution, floods and drought.

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Keep clean mountains, water bodies & historical places

Nikhil Khandelwal, the founder of Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar Ploggers said that they collect around 100 kg of plastic every Sunday morning through their cleanliness drives at mountains, water bodies, historical places and hills.

“With the commencement of the rainy season, people go on trekking and visit hilly areas of the city. However, they carry water bottles and chips. They throw empty bottles and packets there. This causes harm to plants and water bodies. We appeal to people to take back empty bottles and plastic bags to home and put them in their dustbin to maintain cleanliness in our mountains and lakes and ponds for our future generations,” he said. Nikhil said that they conducted 300 drives so far during the last 4.5 years and their organisation has over 4,000 volunteers.