Manage to reduce it

Bretina Rajkumari *

It was one of the busy afternoons of early August this year when I strolled down the street with my mom and aunt to get some vegetables. Walking down - I saw garbage littered all over the place as usual, but at that moment - a thought sprouted in my mind that ‘where would all this garbage go and why are they lying on the side of the roads?’

The following day, the same thing happened in my house, we got a lot of waste piled up in front of my house waiting to get disposed of but then, I interrogated my dad, “Dad, what will we do with all this waste?” then he defended, “we have to burn them.” I didn’t give up, I threw again to get more clarity, “But dad, I learnt in school that we shouldn’t always burn things or else it will cause more air pollution.”

Dad replied with, “Yes, I know that my child but I can’t leave these waste like this lying around, so I have to burn them.” Finally I gave up. After that, I got busy with my work. That very same day, when I was down with my thick Science book, I looked around inside our house and I realized that there was nothing that wouldn’t become a waste after we finished using them.

Have you ever imagined how much waste you have produced since your birth ?

Unimaginable. As a student, I have also learnt about all these wastes and pollutants, but I can’t stop producing wastes right away. I’m not a very creative child, and I don’t have hands which could convert some wastes into some usable things and also I have got a lot of things to do as a student.

At first, I also didn’t care much about these wastes and pollutants until I learnt more about it in school. And I’m just going to say only from what I have known and experienced so far from my school, society and my home. Most of the garbage from my house is kitchen wastes, plastic and paper wastes like every other household.

Talking about the kitchen wastes, it's thrown in the drain or in the pits and for the plastic and paper wastes, they are thrown near the river or sent to the landfill. So, what seems wrong in these activities so far ? From what I have observed in my surroundings, most of the plastic and paper wastes are burnt and my house is not different from others.

One time out of curiosity, I asked my Mom and Dad about any recycling centres in the town. He said that, to his knowledge there was nothing he could think of. Then I realised why they burnt them instead. Have you been taking care of these things in your house too ?

As we have heard and gotten aware of waste management, we can take up many steps to reduce the wastes as far as possible starting from our home. Hence, what can we really do ?

I believe we have to follow some strict waste maintenance rules like converting kitchen wastes into organic manure, carrying our own shopping bags made of paper or jute, minimise burning of plastic and other wastes as it can cause more air pollution.

We can see people living near the river throwing their garbage at the river banks which I think is a hazardous activity that has been poisoning the river water. To conclude my thoughts, we should come up with our own solutions as waste management is very important for every household.

According to my little experience, I think the only thing left to say is to understand ourselves not to promote further usage of plastic as far as possible. We should always start practicing the productive waste management from our homes, so that changes could be widened.

So, in your thoughts, how do you want to manage this matter ? Email me if you have any.