[sparky@home]

Waste management is not of primary importance in our society. The way waste is disposed show utter lack of disregard for same. The daily waste is disposed of where ever possible, maybe a roadside or even in someone’s front yard, it all depends if anyone is watching. One of our biggest dustbin is the railway line, if one could see, I think the entire railway line in our country is a dumping yard. The scene in Kerala, where I stay, which is one of the most literate state in the country, the state of affairs in this matter is terrible. The people keep their surroundings clean, but the waste is disposed of anywhere possible.

I retired from the maritime industry, and waste management is of primary importance on board. A ship not having good waste management resources is a rarity these days, everyone on board follows it effectively. It’s drilled into you from day one.

This article which appeared in The Telegraph is shocking to say the least and also frightening at the same time. The photographs say it all.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017...=tmgoff_fb_tmg

Mods: I did not find any thread on this topic, and if out of context kindly delete.

[hellmet]

Thank you very much for posting this and it gives me hope that there are others from my country who see the situation the same way as I do.

Our oceans have become a dumping ground for all our waste both because we actually dump waste into our rivers and oceans AND due to indirect runoffs from rain, sewers, and wind.

The ocean, they say, has now become a plastic soup with vast areas the size of Texas just completely covered in plastic (great pacific garbage patch).

Birds and animals of the ocean, which have a hard time distinguishing our plastic crap from feed end up eating plastic and dying a slow painful death.

There are some documentaries and Ted talks (that I will try to later link to) that talk about the situation in detail. This is also why we try our best to re-use all our plastic bags, avoid food in plastic (processed food), recycle every bit of plastic we can (thankfully Toronto has a decent waste management system), etc.

[sparky@home]

This is actually a very serious matter and our Prime Ministers “Swach Bharat” is step in the right direction, but other than political overtones, not much is being followed in that direction. While on a train journey the garbage along the rail tracks, make me think where is it going to be destroyed, as its plastic, it will be there forever. Most people sort of take the path of least resistance and dump it where ever possible. So if one person starts a dump, the others follow. There is unity in this matter. We have to start this at school level, only will then the future be bright.

[aargee]

I used to worry about the amount of garbage dump in this country. But offlate, I see a different sets of eyes looking. Although I cannot do it, but I'm sure someone will pickup in future.

As the saying goes...


As such the garbage management is getting difficult, we only have to do a copy cat work from Sweden; because...


As usual, with several, hiccups, if the same can be followed, if not replicated, in here, we've a new business. I'm positive about some big corporate finding way into this model rather than a small player.

[kozhissery]

Originally Posted by sparky@home

This is actually a very serious matter and our Prime Ministers “Swach Bharat” is step in the right direction, but other than political overtones, not much is being followed in that direction. While on a train journey the garbage along the rail tracks, make me think where is it going to be destroyed, as its plastic, it will be there forever. Most people sort of take the path of least resistance and dump it where ever possible. So if one person starts a dump, the others follow. There is unity in this matter. We have to start this at school level, only will then the future be bright.

It is true that it should be taught at school level.
I've a habit of carrying bags while going for purchases (father taught me, he says not to waste anything as creation is very difficult while destruction is easy and gave me examples like tree takes lots of years to grow but hardly needs an hour to cut it down, same for rice, electricity etc etc) and till some years back the local vegetable vendor used to tell me "Saar why do you bring bags, we will give it for free".
After plastic was banned here in Trivandrum the vendor now says that I foresaw this move.
Thanks to my dad, I try not to waste things and adopt green methods. I use solar for lights/fans/charging mobiles, have bio-gas plant to dispose off daily food trash, accumulate all plastic covers, bottles and either sell it to kabadi wala or give it to government collection centers. I try to use organic cleaning solutions for toilets, buy big packs of materials instead of many small packs.

But still I waste lots of things like take own vehicle rather than taking public transport or cycles, buy things online (too much packing materials is involved) etc.