RESIDENT SPEAK: 'Don't our children deserve a cleaner Earth?'

Do we really realize we need to change? It's been a long time since we started living in condominiums and have stopped bothering about our surroundings. Gone are the days when people would broom and mop the area outside their homes. A common interest among the neighbours was to keep the surroundings clean. Whereas today, most of us living in flats hardly bother beyond the fact whether the garbage has been picked up by the housekeeping staff. Forget about what we are throwing as waste — where is it being disposed, or how it will impact us down the line!

Let’s recall the nature of waste during our childhood. It used to be mostly kitchen waste comprising vegetables or food — sometimes there would be papers, glass, etc.

Today, if you look closely, you will realize, the nature of waste has changed. Primarily plastic or non-biodegradable waste is what we are disposing off on a daily basis. We just think of keeping our premises clean; we are overlooking the most important part of our problem — plastic.

Though our judicial system has restricted the use of plastic bags, but neither are local shops abiding by the rules nor are we.  We choose to overlook the ever mounting heap of plastic that is threatening to engulf our oceans and yet still choose to buy plastic and turn a blind eye to this growing environmental disaster.

If you look around while you walk or drive on any road around Gurgaon, you will only see abandoned or stacked up plastic bags/sheets, with or without garbage sprayed all over the road side and across empty fields.

Besides bags, we must start counting the plastic disposables we are generating every time we throw a birthday party, or go for a picnic or arrange bhandaras/social kitchens. Heaps of plastic plates, spoons, glasses, straws are the products of such events. And we just ignore the problem by disposing it through cleaning staff. But what we fail to realize is that even if you dispose the used plastic plates, etc., you are only adding more plastic to the environment, which is already overburdened.

So, looking at solutions, let's implement the regulations. Stop using plastic bags, plates, spoons, glasses, straws, etc. Replace them with paper, jute, cloth or biodegradable stuff as much as possible. Yes, we might have to spend a bit more but it is only for a better future for our kids. Don't they deserve a cleaner Earth? Think again...

Disclaimer: The views expressed in the article above are his own and CitySpidey does not endorse them in anyway.