The New Normal and Sustainability

While the world grappled with the tumultuous impact due to Covid-19 pandemic across various angles of human lives, there were few soothing headlines as far as Mother Nature is concerned. With more than half of world population been locked down inside the four walls of their shelters, lives of human race has significantly changed since last couple of months. Even though threat of the epidemic and the spread still looms, we have decided to embrace the ‘new normal’ to ensure continuity.

Hospitals being overwhelmed, and front line workers struggling to upkeep the health and wellness of the society, there was significant environmental healing being evidenced across the globe. Thanks to the reduction in traffic, little to no tourists thronging various bio-diverse sites. Pictures of reduced pollution, cleaner water, rejuvenation of animal lives were all that we had wished for, but never worked towards.

At present, we are acclimatizing ourselves to adjust with the new normal to practice social distancing, to don masks & gloves, to limit interaction and being extreme cautious with all forms of potential spread of Covid-19. In fact, this has resulted in increased consumption of single-use masks, gloves, PPEs, disposable cutleries, additional usage of packaging materials, sanitizers, soaps and more alarmingly the amount of water.

This ‘New Normal’ is predicted to be existing at least this year, unless there are rays of hope on potential vaccine gets developed, distributed and vaccinated wide spread. So, how could we not only protect ourselves, but also the Mother Nature to prevent it from bearing more waste?

Since this situation is unprecedented, and weighing on the importance of hygiene, more and more products for disinfection and sanitization will be used rampantly. Also, social distancing has led to accommodating less-than-half capacity of people in various facilities (Public Transportation, Flights, Cinemas, Shopping etc.) Considering all these ‘new normal’. Hence, it is only prudent to strike a balance between the two, but how?

• Use your own stuff, sanitize and reuse it. (Rely less on disposable and single-use items)
• Conserve water by turning the tap off while washing your hands.
• Be minimalist, and keep a tab on your spending. Focus more on your needs than wants. (Hoarding and panic buying also to be discouraged. We should mind the fact that production rates are plummeting)
• Dispose waste responsibly, use proper segregation. (Do not dump waste irresponsibly, especially used face masks, gloves, plastic etc.)
• Use facilities if you really wanted do. Give opportunity for the most needed ones. (By overwhelming the facilities additional spaces are to be found, which is again additional resource consumption)
• Use technology and digital tools for connecting with others (This helps save on fuel, food wastage, and prevents the spread of Covid-19)

More than ever, innovation, collective efforts are the need of the hour to drive out the threat and to cushion the impact of current situation.

Another pressing issue is the race towards achieving Sustainable Development Goals -2030. We began this year with the theme of ‘decade of action’, but it seems like we should adapt to more agile and flexible methods towards achieving the SDG targets before the set deadlines.