Problem is not plastics, it is our behavior!

Problem is not plastics, it is our behaviour!

Plastics have become an integral part of our daily life: from plastic brush, shopping bags to laptop

computers and construction materials. If we collect it properly and recycle it there is no trouble at all nothing to worry, but our habits making the environment not liveable.  

Local innovations can play an essential role in plastic management through circular economy approaches, which could prove critical for long-term sustainable development. As illustrated in this report, community innovations stemming from traditional local knowledge as well as from the application of modern science and technology, awareness raising, and advocacy are having tremendous, positive impacts. The cases described here also reveal that the poorest and most vulnerable people in the community often bear the greatest cost of plastic pollution. Many of the projects funded by the Small Grants Programme thus are focused on working with women, youth, and disabled people.

For example, in Bhopal nearly 700 rag pickers, many of whom are socially marginalized and illiterate women, have been organized and trained in waste collection and recycling activities, which has also improved their livelihood. Approximately 10 tonnes of plastics waste are collected at five recovery centres in Bhopal every day, and the plastics are recycled by cement industries in and around the city. In Burundi, a women’s association undertook forest reforestation by using ecological alternatives to plastics in packaging seedlings. The central innovation of this project was to replace plastic bags with bags made of banana bark. This practice was replicated in many other communities, resulting in the avoidance of the use of three million plastic bags throughout Burundi.

These efforts, though inspiring, are like drops of water compared with the ocean of plastics and associated threats we are facing. The problem of plastic pollution is so prevalent, and societal habits and behaviors are so entrenched, that no single-sector approach can address the problem successfully.

Women rag pickers now earn around US$3 – US$11 every day from selling plastic waste, which is then sold to make roads. Roads made with mixed plastic last long due to their high resistance to water, significant for a region with a critical monsoon period.

Re-used waste plastic, rubber, and sand was developed into a product called e-stones, a kind of brick that is weather resistant, stronger than cement bricks, and can be used for outdoor paving.

Problem is not plastics, it is our behavior, need to change our collection systems and waste management.  

Lets support recycling together we can change