Plastic, plastic, everywhere

We traveled between Trichy (Tiruchirappalli) and Peravurani multiple times in August. We also drove to Thanjavur, Pattukkottai, and Karaikudi. One thing was common across all of these places. Plastic Bags. EVERYWHERE. Roadsides. Former paddy fields. Garbage mounds. Train tracks. In front of small tea shops. Uncultivated land right next to TASMAC shops.

My heart ached. I remembered the paddy fields in various shades of green; they used to be the one thing on both sides of the road on our way between my family’s home town and all the above mentioned places, just about 25 years ago.?

Today, the little tea shops across most of the little villages pack their “parcel tea” in plastic bags. Restaurants, almost 99% of them, use plastic bags to pack hot sambhar, rasam, and vegetables. Right next to every TASMAC shop, hundreds and thousands of plastic bags cover the entire field. Actual cultivation of land has dwindled to a very negligible amount and it’s as if we are farming plastics. Animals such as goats and cows die due to digestive malfunction after eating plastic. A goat grower was mourning the death of her goat, valued at Rs 12,000 due to plastic bag consumption.?

Plastic bags are terrible for the earth. “These plastic bags generate pollution throughout their life cycle — from greenhouse gas emissions to toxic chemicals to microplastics — all of which create invisible but no less impactful harms to our communities and the environment.” - Read the source article .

I have only visited a few cities, small towns, and villages during the month of August and the amount of plastic I came across is unbelievable. If the soul of India lives in its villages, please look around. See how the soul of India is being polluted, one plastic bag at a time, very quickly, every minute as someone buys their morning tea or buys water for something else in the evening.?

It is too late. Yet starting late is better than not doing something at all. Because “Plastic remains in our environment for hundreds of years, breaking down into microplastics and polluting our soils and our waterways and our own human body." - Blakespear?

It may be past time to educate people to eradicate plastic. Every one of them I spoke to who were either buying tea in plastic bags or packing food in plastic bags gently or laughingly reminded me to mind my own business.?

Tamil Nadu needs to take immediate action to ban plastic bags in the food industry and other places NOW. To save the environment, save livestock, save lives, and to save the future generations. And then, create awareness to go back to the roots of taking a container to buy tea and food.