"Refuse/Reuse Plastic Covers" Drive

Refuse / Reuse Plastic Covers

Everybody would have heard this a million times. But have we REALLY given it a thought? Why do we, specially educated people do this? Is it because of the ease of not requiring to carrying bags? Look what we so called "educated" people are upto! We see the below state of the city almost in every street, yet do not bother, thinking it is BBMP's work and they are not doing it.

Streets piling up with plastic covers - is so alarming !!! 

Until the BBMP picks them up, many cattles come and feed here, consuming plastic covers. So what? It is from this cow, you will get the milk and consume it yourself. And that cattle dies eventually due to KG's of plastic covers in it's stomach. 

Remember - "What goes around, comes around!" Yes, this is THE RULE nature follows. 

Pic Source : Internet

Pic Source : Internet

Even though BBMP takes it away from this spot, the maximum they could do is dump it to the landfills. What happens there? Has anyone given it a thought?

Trucks to dump the waste we generate in landfills - Pic Source : Internet

Can you imagine the smell this generates in this area?  Pic Source : Internet

These landfills will have these for centuries together, as the plastic is NOT decomposable. So what?

If pictures are not convincing enough, take a look at the vidoes showing what is happening in the landfills -

(Video Source : Deccan Herald)

(Video Source : Deccan Herald)

After looking at these video, what is the feeling we get if we are real, educated human beings? It should be "the guilt".

Oh please, let us stop blaming someone else for the things we are responsible for! Look what have we been doing to the Nature all these years. It is high time, we REFUSE plastic covers at the first point.

Also a reminder that Plastic Covers are very much REUSABLE. We all understand that it is not practical to use cloth bag every time, but we can ALWAYS REUSE these plastic bags already at home!

Since cleaning begins at "home" we, volunteers of South Bangalore Organic Gardening, (group named The SOUTHekais)  planned and set out to make the "Refuse/Reuse Plastic Covers" Drive on 6th Dec 2015 near the Mini Forest Park, where we see roadside veggie vendors selling on daily basis and their customers are mostly the morning walkers, who after a stroll in the park, take back the veggies home on daily basis, also taking back NEW plastic covers every single day (a regular pattern as observed in any area probably)

The target was to spread awareness on this among:

• The roadside veggie vendors
• Their customers, who EACH time took a new cover every day.

So ,we prepared ourselves with a few banners on what we want to convey, a table, few cloth bags, compost bins for demo (an additional msg to re-use the kitchen waste) and setup a stall on the road side by 7am.

Pic Source : TSK

Looking at the new faces, people started getting curious or probably wondered if we are new veggie vendors in the area :-P

At first, they were hesitant and were scared to pass near to our stall. We welcomed each passer by, who looked at us and few were courageous enough ( :-P ) to ask what were we upto!

While we observed the vendors who were giving away plastic bags and also observed the walkers, who carried plastic bags and then and there started conveying and they said "sure, we know... but still..." , we also saw a set of people carrying their own cloth/jute bags. We clapped in group for them and thanked them for carrying their own bags and they felt proud, smiled back and said "Yes, we understand and we practice it" ! 

Those who were curious about the bins labelled as "Demo Bokashi Bins" and the tiny Khamba, came nearer to ask what was that about and we gave various details about - what is composting, different types of composting and how easily we can do it either via a DIY way at home or buy readily available stuffs from Vendors. 

We also informed them about how harmful is using disposable containers - the paper cups (which is wax coated and contains a plastic layer in between), the disposable plates which contains harmful chemicals , which when used on a longer period of time, can cause harm.

Milkman - encourages bringing own bags

A silent crusader, the milkman as we saw, did not give away plastic bags so easily. He asked if the customer has brought his bag. Proud to have such informed people around! 

The "technique" of folding a Plastic Bag

Well, it is not a robotic science :-D , but this triangular fold definitely works like a charm! And then you could put them in your vanity bags, laptop bags, car, scooter, or even your pocket! 

Video 

Overall Experience 

By the time the TSK team wrapped up by 9am, we had the sense of immense happiness that people actually wanted to know (about composting), but did not know where to gather the information from; that people agreed on re-using plastic covers; that people actually showed their interest in growing veggies organically at their home!

It is just the beginning and we have more such campaigns planned up! And yes, we are volunteers and do this for FREE :) We would like to encourage every individual to contribute in below ways :

• Reuse plastic covers. Refuse new ones.
• Spread awareness among your family, friends whenever you see them asking for a new plastic cover or not carrying their own bags, when they very much know that they are out for shopping.
• Compost at home, you can even do it at your apartment level or community level
• Join the subgroups of Organic Kitchen Gardeners and be present physically for such events!

Everyone can do their bit. Let's get responsible :)